432 entrants so far for tsunami memorial contest

BANGKOK: An astonishing 432 entrants from 44 countries have registered so far for Thailand’s Tsunami Memorial Design Competition. Registration closes next Tuesday (November 15).

The aim of the competition is to gather conceptual designs for building a memorial at Khao Lak that will be “appropriate and interactive” and “serve as a permanent tribute” to those who lost their lives in the tsunami.

As of yesterday, the largest number of registrations, 105, had come from the US, with Thailand in second place with 72. Almost every Western and East Asian nation is represented, and registrations have also been received from Mozambique, Lebanon and Panama.

The names of the seven members of the Stage I Jury, who will draw up a shortlist to be examined in detail by the Stage 2 Jury, have been announced.

They are Jonas Bohlin (Sweden), Stephan Braunfels (Germany), Daniel Libeskind (US), David Elliott (Britain), Xu Anzhi (China), and Prof Decha Boonkham and MR Chanvudhi Varavarn (Thailand).

Mr Libeskind, incidentally, is the architect responsible for the original designs for the Freedom Tower and Memory Foundations, which are currently being built at the World Trade Center site in New York.

The deadline for entries is December 6, with the winner being announced May 22 next year. For more details see the competition website here. https://www.tsunamimemorial.or.th