(“Text as submitted by architect”)
Nawit Ongsavangchai, PhD.
Nawit Ongsavangchai completed his Ph.D. in urban architecture from Kyoto University, Japan. Currently, he is Professor of Architecture and the head of the Asian Urban Architecture Laboratory, Faculty of Architecture, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. He is the founder and principal of the architectural design studio, HANABITATE, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Besides design practice, he also does research, which mainly focuses on the transformation and relationship among architecture, urban elements, urban structure, and form in Asian cities, especially in the old quarter areas. Adaptive reuse of these urban components to prolong their usefulness for contemporary life and future requirements is also one of his research interests. The experience and outcome from his field research were subtly applied in professional practice and can be observed in his architecture, especially in renovation projects.
Practice Ideology
Hanabitate Architects design architecture to manifest new possibilities in the creation of living environments and space utilization in both exterior and interior domains that link with the surrounding context from short to long distances, from urban scale to land plot level. They based their design ideology on historical understanding to expand its connection to space usage at the present time and explore some new spatial and figurative creations for architecture in the future. They are concerned that building architecture is the process of cultural creation, which represents human evolution in spatial arrangement related to the neighbourhood, street block, village, or town where the building is located. Moreover, building is the basic element that affects the configuration of its surrounding environment; therefore, architecture is the determination of a future trend that links its past to its present location.
