You Can Win This Asian Young Designer Contest
Try your luck in this nationwide design contest. There are cash prizes at stake!
If you’re a young designer or design student, why not try your hand in envisioning and creating the spaces of the future? You can do this in Nippon Paint’s Asia Young Designer Award-Philippines 2017 (AYDA). Entries from Architecture and Interior Design students in their third year and above will compete and the winners of the Gold awards for the two divisions will go on to represent the country at the Asia Young Designer Award 2017 Competition in Malaysia.
This year’s theme is “You For Tomorrow: Future Living, As Envisioned Today.” Michael Francisco, Nippon Paint (Coatings) Philippines general manager says that they are looking for future-forward designs that will be sustainable: “Nippon tries to communicate the objective of having consideration for the environment and society. We also try to encourage participants to use colors. We feel that buildings, when more colorful, provide more interest.”
According to Gladys Goh, Nippon Paint group general manager: “We want our designers to be forward-thinking, to consider whatever disruption we have in the world right now. How can we embrace this disruption and still bring the community together and design with a heart?”
This is the fourth year the Philippines will be participating in the decade-old competition that was established in Malaysia. It will be the first time that it will feature foreign guest judges. Among the considerations for entries are creativity, efficiency, comfort, sustainability, purpose, a heart for the community, and Green Design.
Gold awardees for each category will receive P50,000 cash, a six-month internship at AIDEA, Inc. or Casas+ Architects, and the chance to participate in the Learning Program to be held in Malaysia. They will also represent the country in the AYDA 2017. There are also cash prizes for the Silver Prize winner, the finalists, Best Color Choice, Best Green Innovation, Best Supporting College, and Best Professor.
“The AYDA [allows the architecture and interior design students to] showcase their talent in the global arena,” Goh says. “It’s not just about the award or the prize for the winners. It’s a platform to exchange, share, make friends, and despite cultural differences between countries, discover the similarities among all of us. We bring together the community of designers to share a common goal: to design with a difference.”
AYDA is Nippon paint’s corporate social responsibility program that provides a platform to expose today’s young professionals to design trends, provide them with mentoring and coaching from renowned architects and interior designers, and allow them to interact and network with fellow future practitioners in the field from all over Asia. Nippon has a team that conducts school caravans to better communicate AYDA’s theme, criteria, and parameters efficiently to students.
Last year, there were 1,200 entries from the Philippines—which, according to Goh, comprised a quarter of the entries for the entire competition. AYDA has also earned the endorsement of the Philippine Commission for Higher Education. Watch their official video here:
The AYDA is held in 15 countries, including: Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Iran, Japan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Deadline for submission of entries is September 30, 2017. You may ask your class advisers for details; or for more information, click here, or visit their Facebook page.
