Thais win Gold Award for green bird sanctuary and another prize for saving canals

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HOLCIM AWARDS
Thais win Gold Award for green bird sanctuary and another prize for saving canals
Itthi C Tan
THE NATION
JAKARTA


Thai winners Singh Intrachooto, third from left, looks on as Jariyawadee Lekawatana holds up the first prize while Chak Cherdsatirkul, sixth from left, joins the celebration hosted by Swiss cement giant Holcim in Jakarta.

BANGKOK: -- Shock and delight were the words that best described a Thai team's emotions when it was announced they had won first prize at the prestigious Holcim Awards for Green Architecture.

The Gold award worth Bt3.2 million was handed to Jariyawadee Lekawatana, Dr Singh Intrachooto and Chak Cherdsatirkul for their Protective Wing Bird Sanctuary project in Chiang Mai.

"We were completely stunned," said Dr Singh in an interview at the weekend. "The results were kept a tight secret until the gala event."

The Asia Pacific contest drew about 1,000 entries. It is ranked among the world's most reputable "green" selection of high quality master-plans.

Another Thai architecture team took home an Acknowledgement Prize worth about Bt500,000 for a plan to restore old canals in the Kingdom.

"This has been a great night for Thailand," said Jariyawadee. He and Dr Singh are regarded as leading green designers.

Three years ago, the duo won another Holcim award for a blueprint to convert an abandoned riverfront warehouse into an indoor farm.

"One of our teammates was so thrilled he screamed," said Singh, who lectures at Kasetsart University.

The second Thai team headed by architects Santi Sombatwihaton and Pongporn Sudbanthad impressed judges with a plan to restore canals and link them to mass commuter stations.

"It is an ambitious effort to reduce carbon emissions and make Bangkok a more liveable metropolis," Pongporn said.

"We are working with 25 communities who are critical to its success. The current Khlong Bang Sue phase will be our showcase canal as we link it to Khlong Lat Phrao and eventually to Khlong Saen Saeb and the Sathorn section.

"The victory has been a humbling experience. We didn't think we would win anything."

The judges praised the two Thai groups for their beautiful presentations and making their projects relevant to the difficulties people face everyday.

In the case of the 70-rai (26.5 acres) bird sanctuary, the judges said it was constructive in addressing tough issues such as a law enforcement situation that failed to protect animals it saved.

As prosecuting poachers takes a long time, thousands of birds die each year as there is no facility to house and feed them after they are seized from illegal traders, the judges said, adding that trials could take five years and by that time the bird would have perished.

"Architects have social responsibilities too," said Pongporn. "Not everything we do has to be commercial in value."

The Silver Holcim Award went to Hillary Sample for Children's Ziggurat, an orphanage and library project in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Bronze award went to the Post-War Collective project by Milinda Pathiraja of Sri Lanka. The community building plan calls for veterans of the conflict in that country to rebuild a community, enabling them to return to society.

Four other Acknowledgement Prizes went to winners from Japan, India, Indonesia and Kiribati.

The Japanese project headed by Benoit Jacques and Manuel Tardis will result in the construction of a research centre in Kyoto using traditional woodwork.

India's Madhusudhan Rao Chalansani from Hyderabad is behind a plan for a medical centre and school that is financed by a mining company as part of its corporate social responsibility programme.

The Situ Network by British architect Maj Plemenitas seeks to save Tarawa Atoll from submerging by using palm leaves that can prevent erosion while allowing silt to build up.

The Indonesian project Mega City Skeleton was conceived by Tomohiko Amemiya and involves upgrading informal settlements in Jakarta by using durable structures to improve hygiene and living spaces for slum dwellers.

In the Next Generation category for young architects, Zhe Peng of China won first prize for his Panda Watching project, which involved the reconstruction of a historic village in Sichuan where pandas are a tourist attraction.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Thais-win-Gold-Award-for-green-bird-sanctuary-and--30247905.html


-- The Nation 2014-11-17

[chainarong]

Awards of this nature while welcome are few and far between , these efforts are overwhelmed by continued breaches of wildlife destruction of habitat, wildlife ivory poaching, illegal trade and the list go's on , one congratulates these good people but as I have said few and far between.

[Robby nz]

Congratulations to these people for their efforts and their recognition.

However more needs to be done to preserve the remaining wild places in this country and the rest of the world.

There are those who are doing their best, but there are also those who mostly through greed or just not understanding the true value of the wild places and wildlife which lives there who are working against preserving the sanctuaries and national parks.

A case in point is the proposed Mae Wong dam which would devastate part of the habitat of some of the rarest wildlife in this country, another example is mining licenses which are given out for national park areas.

For those interested in wild places in Thailand have a look at this site : http://www.thaiwhic.go.th/eng/heritage_nature.aspx

[doremifasol]

Congratulations! Well done!!!!!!

[NextStationBangkok]

Good initiative! Green space around the residence is important for good living conditions. I hope Bangkok will implement to big commercial building to leave atleast 25-40% space for green zone, and for public usage. For example around Siam, everything is commercial except a temple having trees. Probably they should increase more space in any means, like temples, parks. More importantly it should not be used for any commericial activities, like sale, night market, parking etc, to protect the people from chronic illness like Heart decease, Cancer and Adiabatic.

[ourmanflint]

what a joke! It's just a blueprint for something that will probably never get built. The project shows pictures of tobacco curing barns from Phrae Province not Chiang Mai