Researching on the ‘everyday’ domesticity, Figuring out (different) ways to use ethnographic research methodology in spatial research

Conducting two researches on the ‘everyday’ domesticity in the urban context of Bangkok, the author intends to unfold materials that would elucidate the ways in which social changes are embedded in the urban homelife and the domestic space. The goal of using ethnographic research methodology in the two researches is to learn from inhabitants’experiences of buildings, to make the spatial experience of‘living’intelligible as much as to propose ways of improving the design of future buildings for inhabitants. In parallel to these ‘formal’ ethnographical research materials, the researches also generate two sets of interesting ‘informal’ research materials: (1) Bangkok Home Lives Project and (2)Rethinking Domesticity. The two informal materials are cultural studies as much as spatial analysis that critique on the existing contemporary domesticity including spatial, experiential and perceptive qualities. The questions are, if we are to stretch the limit of research materials believing that doing research is the approximate and dynamic procedure by which multiple curiosities build towards unexpected consequences, then in what way could we connect these seemingly informal research materials? And how do we make these materials valid and intelligible in the field of architectural research?

Keywords: Domesticity, Bangkok homelife, Thai domestic interior.