BANGKOK, March 5 – The Thai capital won Japan’s ‘2011 Asian Townscape Awards’ for its old town Rattanakosin Island.
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Deputy Governor Wallop Suwandee received the award at Japan’s United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) Fukuoka Office.
Such prizes are organised by the Fukuoka Office together with related Japanese agencies under the theme “Living Environment and Urban Revival”, awarding a town/city or a pilot project that lifts the quality of life of its people along with an environmental development.
The criteria for winning the award includes promotion of life safety, the importance to art and culture, correlation between the town’s landscape and its people’s way of life, the town’s creative projects, and being a pilot scheme for other cities in the future.
Bangkok presented itself with the project of ‘The Living Bangkok Heritage’. It was a development project with tangible conservation outcomes on four selected areas of old town Rattanakosin Island–Plabpla Maha Jetsadabodin Ground, Santichaiprakarn Park, Nakarapirom Park, and Sanam Luang Ceremonial Ground.
The consideration for the prize winner consists of three processes: the primary selection of towns/projects, onsite inspection by judging committee’s representatives from various countries, and the award judgement itself.
In addition to Bangkok, South Korea’s Jeju and Pohang and Japan’s Kumamoto also won ‘2011 Asian Townscape Awards’.
