An overview of public housing characteristics and living satisfactions: old and new public housing project in Bangkok

Public housing has been provided in Thailand for low income people more than 40 years especially in urban area such as Bangkok. There are more than thirty public housing projects with different schemes built. Most importantly the quality of living to enhance low income satisfaction has been widely concerned. This study is to investigate the existing public housing pattern development and its characteristics. Two case studies of different public housing project period under the National Housing Authority operation in Bangkok are employed to be examined by comparative content analysis. The result finds that the five-story walk-up flat still becomes a prototype in operating the basic element of function. The unit area of new public housing project is quite smaller (33 sq.m.) than the old project, but it meets the standard. The dwelling unit satisfaction indicates the moderate level. This result enables analytical platform of in-depth public housing study to identify the ways in improving the quality of life for low income people through living and cultural context approach to sustainable social development vision. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.