NZ architects invited to collaborate on French Memorial for Pukeahu

Sir Peter Jackson in the entrance to The Great War Exhibition which will be open until 2018 at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A global architectural competition will be launched on Anzac Day to design a French memorial which will be gifted to New Zealand and erected at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park.

A symposium featuring input from French and Kiwi personalities, including artists, historians, designers, and writers, took place in France in December to establish the $800,000 memorial's "aesthetics, design and remembrance purpose".

The group concluded it should include a strong French component and be a living monument to the two countries' friendship, shared history and mutual future, as well as paying tribute to their shared experiences of war and peacekeeping.

Now, a design competition brief will be released on Anzac Day with a winner announced on Remembrance Day, November 11 this year.

It's planned to be inaugurated within Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington in 2018.

"France places great value on the significance of this memorial to celebrate the relationship between our two countries, the enduring friendship that unites us and the common memories we share, of which the First World War was a major example," said Florence Jeanblanc-Risler, Ambassador of France to New Zealand.

The competition, endorsed by the New Zealand Institute of Architects, will take place in close collaboration with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Wellington City Council.

A jury composed of five French and New Zealand personalities will decide the winner.

• For more information, visit: www.frenchmemorialatpukeahu.org