Puiphai Kunawat, chairman of Architect'23, says that the Architect'23 will be a platform for everyone to discuss and figure out the way to work together to grow together. The theme this year is "Time of Togetherness" to reflect the idea to combine all architectural fields together. This is the first time that it has five co-organizing chairmen from five associations, which are the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage (ASA), Thailand Interior Designers' Association (TIDA), Thai Association of Landscape Architects (TALA), Thai Urban Designers Association (TUDA), and Architect Council of Thailand (ACT). This gathering of the professionals who have the big impact on the environment is to sustain the society and the world. Metaphorically, these organizers are the chefs selecting the ingredients and cooking the tasty foods to satisfy diners, while the diners are the world and the society which need the changes to be able to respond to all the coming challenges in this era.
The highlights in the Architect'23 are 'Human Library', where 'Human Books' from several categories will share their stories and experiences during these six days. 'Human Books' are, for example, Amata Luphaiboon, Boom Tharis, Jun Sekino, Ted Yuthana Boonaom and etc. The other is 'All Member : Design Showcase' which is an exhibition to show the outstanding works of architects and designers from the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage (ASA), Thailand Interior Designers' Association (TIDA), Thai Association of Landscape Architects (TALA) and Thai Urban Designers Association (TUDA).
Mesa Nopakun, a representative from Thailand Interior Designers' Association, says that 'TIDA Salone' Designer Showcase is returned after years. This year, the leading designers, BCG Hero Product and Sustainable Material suppliers, and contractors will collaborate and mock up the rooms. Moreover, we will present TIDA Thesis Awards to the students and TIDA Awards to the professionals who win the competition. TIDA also prepares 'TIDA Talk' for general visitors who are interested in the interior design stories and the academic seminar for the interior designers in the 'TIDA SOCIETY' zone. TIDA also set aside an area for visitors to take a break and to shop souvenirs.
Munggorn Chaijaroenmaitre, one of co-organizing chairmen from Thai Association of Landscape Architects (TALA), cites that landscape is a field of architecture that focuses on the surrounding area, which also has an impact on the quality of lives. In this event, TALA will present the outstanding Thai and regional landscape works to make people have a better understanding in landscape. We have 'TALA CLASSROOM' that allows everyone to learn and present the landscape-related topics, for example, food chefs and landscape, Certified Arborist, the fundamental and importance of the earth for landscape, etc. The classroom will be designed as the arena to make the ambience cozy and more relaxing. Besides, it also offers some funs and activities, for example, agricultural talks with landscape architects, or how to take landscape photography by professional photographer.
Asst. Prof. Komgrij Thanapet, one of co-organizing chairmen from Thai Urban Designers Association (TUDA), discloses that TUDA's zone will focus on both challenges and opportunities of the urban development such as the water and environment issues. It will divide into five zones, which are 1. TUDA ZEB, which gathers thesis, design works and academic researches. 2. TUDA x Muang, which showcases the urban development work that TUDA is a co-host, for example, Pattaya City Competition. 3. TUDA X Mhu or TUDA and Friends, which present the outstanding works of urban design and development from other companies
4. TUDA Khak, which present the urban development works done by TUDA's members and 5. TUDA Muan, which is an area for relaxing and exchanging the experiences.
Korakoth Kunalungkarn, one of co-organizing chairmen from Architect Council of Thailand (ACT), reveals that as a center that gathers all architectural fields together, ACT expects that Architect'23 will be a changer to make every party work together as a team. ACT is going to hold ASA ACT Forum'23, an architectural international forum and seminar. The highlight is that it has invited the world's famous architects, interior designers, landscape designers and urban development designer to share their knowledge and experiences. Some of those speakers are Wong Mun Summ from WOHA (Singapore), Damian Thompson from LatStudios (Australia), and Jakob Dunkl from querkraft architects (Austria).
Supaman Munka, general manager of TTF International Co., Ltd, the organizer of Architect'23, says that Architect'23 is a full return post COVID-19 pandemic. Covering the area of 75,000 SQ.M, the event gathers over 800 Thai and foreign exhibitors to show their products and services in the building and construction industry. The number of the overseas exhibitors is seven times higher than the previous one. It accounts for 21.33% of total and they are from different countries including Australia, China, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and the USA. This emphasizes the Architect'23 is an internationally well-recognized construction technology and innovation EXPO.
Throughout six days, he expects to have about 325,000 visitors and generate the income of 22 billion baht for construction material businesses, up 10% from the previous year. The main factor is the improvement of COVID-19 situation, enabling more foreign exhibitors to join this EXPO. Meanwhile, he also collaborates for the Asia Architectural Expo Alliance Partnership such as Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan to promote this event broadly. The highlights this year are exceptional, for example,
- Thematic Pavilion - a collaboration between young designers and construction material suppliers to present what their products can be done beyond imagination. It has divided into four booths: 1. VG and TOA working with designers from Hypothesis 2. WOODDEN working with PAVA architects 3. EMPOWER STEEL working with ACa Architects and 4. THAIKOON STEEL and THAI PREMIUM PIPE working with Context Studio. All of them will enhance the event's creativity and the design standard to meet the international level.
- Product Launching, for example TOA AQUA SHIELD 2IN1 MULTI SURFACE, GREENLAM SHOWER SURFACES from GREENLAM, FLOOR PATCHING MORTAR from JORAKAY. MW001G PORTABLE MICROWAVE from MAKITA, GRANTS SERIES CORNER SLIDING DOOR from TOSTEM, AELIFTOR & SOLAR CELL from DOS
- BIMobject Live Thailand 2023 - a seminar that keeps you updated about the Digital Construction trend, which will drive the Thai construction to achieve the Net Zero goal with BIM and AI technology. It will also give you the design and construction insight of "Sindhorn Village", Thailand's first mixed use project with advanced architecture by A49, Thai Obayashi and Siam Sindhorn on Friday 28th April from 13.00 to 17.15 at the INNO-CORNER stage.
- Architect'23 x Lazada - It is the first time to collaborate with the leading e-commerce platform Lazada to provide special offers to exhibitors who would like to add their distribution channel. Along with allowing exhibitors to showcase their products and services, they will also have the chance to connect with the online platform.
In the press conference, it will hold a seminar, entitled 'Cultural Sustainability'. Five professional associations will jointly share their perspective how to link the architecture and local cultures together to create more value-added works and improve the Thai architecture to the higher level.
Architect'23 will be organized during 25-30 April 2023 at Challenger Hall IMPACT Muang Thong Thani. For the latest update and more information, please visit www.ArchitectExpo.com or Facebook Page: ASA Expo.
Source: Modernteer
