Learning from Contextual Material Practices in Architecture: Exploring Nature-Based Materials in Indonesia and Thailand

This paper outlines pedagogical strategies in architectural design studio to construct awareness of local material practices towards architecture which rooted in its environmental context. Current architectural discourse perceives the notion of material as something separate from its environmental context. Through a joint design workshop conducted between Universitas Indonesia and Kasetsart University, this paper explores existing material practices happening in the local context of Indonesia and Thailand and how it informs material-driven architectural programming. In a group, students were tasked to reconstruct their understanding of materiality, and develop collections of material practices from both countries which revealed various local knowledge, spatiality, and environmental understanding. The workshop then demonstrates important lessons in the ways material triggers programmatic relation between architecture and its surrounding environment. Among these relations are shown in the way nature-driven community events triggers specific material craftsmanship, the connection between material utilisation in the community's spaces and natural cycles of seasons, and the interdependence between material practices and different geographical positions. Strategies in reconstructing the material knowledge towards material-based programming cross-culturally enables students to reflect on the unique material possibilities, as well as build awareness of local community strategies toward sustainable and material-driven architecture.