Besides scoring a 6-month internship with IJM Land Berhad, the Asia Young Designer Award (AYDA) 2017’s Gold winners will compete at Asia level in March 2018. We wish them best of luck!
6 December, Kuala Lumpur: Shahmeena Labeeb from Taylors University and Ng Wai How from University Malaya were recently crowned the Gold Award winners for the Interior Design and Architecture Category respectively, in the 10th instalment of AYDA 2017.
AYDA was first launched in 2008 as part of Nippon Paint’s vision to nurture the next generation of design talents and has since grown to establish itself as one of Asia’s premier design competition platforms.
Zooming in on the winners, Shahmeena and Ng’ entries were in line with this year’s theme “You for Tomorrow: Future Living as Envisioned Today” ,which was tailored to challenge the foresight and technical abilities of young designers today to anticipate the needs of tomorrow through designs that serve the citizens of the future.
Shahmeena’s entry: “Plan Bee – A City Beekeeping Project”
Ng’s entry: “War Museum – An Extension of Tugu Negara”.
AYDA 2017 had received over 5,000 student entries from more than 600 design schools across the region. For Malaysia alone, AYDA had received a total of 1,109 entries from 44 participating design institutions.
With innovation being the heart of Nippon Paint, we strive to push the boundaries on ideations as this is the soul of all our endeavours. Nurturing young designers with the right skillsets and exposure and to prepare them for the real-world beyond the four walls of the classroom has always been a priority for us at Nippon Paint. We believe that the young designers hold the key to the betterment of the future. – Gladys Goh, Group General Manager, Nippon Paint Malaysia Group –
“When I look at the entries this year I am impressed by the forward-thinking capability of our future young designers which truly reflects their ability to think critically. We have received entries that cover a wide range of areas such as regeneration of old spaces in order to create better value, disruptive innovation for the betterment of tomorrow, redefining spaces for the future as well as preserving culture and traditions for future generations,” added Gladys in her opening speech for the awards ceremony.
Property developer, IJM Land Bhd has been a collaborative partner for the ADYA since 2014.
We believe that as advocates of creative thinking, playing the role to nurture young creative talents and shape future minds is our responsibility, which is why we have partnered with Nippon Paint Malaysia for the past four years. In support of this initiative, we provide six-month internships to both gold and silver winners of each category. This is definitely a great opportunity for the winners to go behind the scenes to look at some of IJM Land’s projects including large townships to smaller niche projects. – Edward Chong, Managing Director , IJM Land Sdn Bhd –
AYDA alumnus and past winners have progressed to becoming reputable architects and interior designers in their field – from being attached to globally-recognised architectural firms to taking on leadership roles in self-established firms.
In celebration of AYDA’s 10th-year milestone, Malaysia will play host to the 4-day AYDA Regional Learning Programme, which will be rebranded as the Asia Young Designer Summit.
At this summit scheduled for March 2018, winners from the 15 participating countries, Shahmeena and Ng included, will come together to crown the Asia Young Designer of the Year for 2017. To be attended by young talent and industry experts, the event will also witness various panel discussions, dialogues, mentoring and speaker sessions.
Find out more about AYDA here.