Daily Times

Nippon Paint Pakistan announced the Winners of ‘Asia Young Designer Award’ (AYDA 2018) December 7, at a finale event held in Royal Palm, Lahore.

Launched in 2008, the event has become one of Asia’s premier design awards, serving as a platform to inspire architecture and interior design students to develop their skills and to network with key industry players and peers in the region. Acknowledging the abundance of talent in the creative industry and in an attempt to give back to the society through investing in the future of young architectural students, AYDA was launched by Nippon Paint Pakistan in 2016.

For the year 2018-19, 15 countries across Asia participated in the AYDA Regional Finale 2018-19including Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hong Kong (China), Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Taiwan, and Pakistan.

The highlight of this year’s AYDA is that the Regional Platinum Award Winner would get to attenda fully funded 6-week all expenses paid for design discovery program at Harvard Graduate School of Design where the winners would have the privilege to learn and experience intensive studio work, lectures, workshops and field trips.

This program results from NIPSEA Group’s establishment of the Gennosuke Obata Fellowship Fund at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (‘GSD’). The fund will provide financial aid to GSD students from Asian countries.

A world renowned Malaysian architect ArSarly Adre Bin Sarkum was the guest speaker during the finale. Ar. Sarly Adre Sarkum is an architecture futurist, sustainability proponent and design activist. Currently, he helms the hybrid architectural design firm “Sarly Adre Sarkum Architecture Sdn. Bhd”. He is the Immediate Past President of the Malaysia Green Building Confederation which is Malaysia’s Green Building Council under the auspices of the World Green Building Council. He is also currently an elected council member of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (The Malaysian Institute of Architects). He currently sits as one of the five directors of the GBI Green Rating Tool.

The jury for the competition included renowned architects including Ar. Raza Ali Dada, Managing Partner at Nayyer Ali Dada and Associates, Ar. Fawad Abbasi, Vice President at IAP and Architect at Suhail and Fawad Architects, Ar Rashid Rasheed, owner of SR Design Works and Ar. Khadija Jamal Shaban, Chairperson of BAE.

The Gold winnerwon a cash award Rs100,000 and would be going to a fully sponsored trip by Nippon Paint to Singapore in order to attend the ‘Regional Learning Programme’ and compete with AYDA Gold winners from 15 other countries. The Silver winnerand honorary mention award winner received a cash award of Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively.

Published in Daily Times, December 11^th 2018.