Architecture Council files petition against KMITL
The Architecture Council of Thailand has filed a petition against a prominent educational institution for allegedly designing a plan for the Chao Phraya for All project without a proper licence.
“We have already submitted a petition to the Interior minister and expect him to forward it to the Council of State [for legal interpretation and then further action],” council president Jedkamchorn Phromyothi said yesterday of the move against King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lat Krabang (KMITL).
The Interior Ministry has spearheaded the much-criticised riverside project along with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
The latest controversy surrounds a design prepared by the KMITL team for the project, which critics believe looks like a copy of a work by a famous foreign architect.
KMITL has already firmly dismissed claims of plagiarism. But the Architecture Council has now questioned whether the educational institution even has a proper licence to do such design.
Associate Professor Antika Sawadsri, spokeswoman for the project, yesterday downplayed the licence issue.
“Persons in KMITL have individual licences. This can be verified,” she said. She also pointed that KMITL was also considered a legal entity and thus could take on such a job.
Jedkamchorn, however, insisted that KMITL needed a licence of a legal entity issued by his council to do the design work.
“But none in the KMITL team has sought a licence from us as a legal entity,” he said. –The Nation
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