UP, UST students win Nippon Paint’s Asia Young Designer Award (AYDA) Philippines 2018

A student from the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao bagged the Gold award in the Architecture category, while a student from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) won the Gold award in the Interior Designs category of the recently concluded Asia Young Designer (AYDA) Philippines 2018.

Nippon Paint (Coatings) Philippines Inc. announced the winners for the Philippine edition of the AYDA 2018 in a ceremony held at the GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium in Quezon City. AYDA 2018 is an annual design competition open to architecture and interior design students.

UP Mindanao student Prince Lu received P50,000 cash price for his work “Neokamaigen,” a futuristic city concept that hopes to answer housing needs in the future and prepare the Philippines for the melting of the ice glaciers that will raise water levels around the globe.

UST student Odrysa Mie Serino also received P50,000 for her work “Gunita,” a greenhouse cemetery concept that will deal with social issues like environmental deterioration and land

cemetery places the dead vertically inside a Manunggul Jar, a pre- historic practice where the jar serves as a burial pod.

As Gold awardees for AYDA 2018, which carried the theme “FORWARD: Challenging Design Boundaries,” Lu and Serino will go to the AYDA 2018 Regional Finals, which will be held in Singapore, and compete with the best architecture and interior design students in Asia. They will vie for the chance to be included in the Harvard University Graduate School of Design’s Design Discovery Program.

“This year’s entries were truly out of the box and very creative, perhaps triggered by this year’s theme. Since Nippon Paint became part of AYDA, we know the entries to be very strong and in fact, we almost won the regionals before. This year, we’re optimistic that a Filipino will go to Harvard,” Michael Francisco, Nippon Paint ( Coatings) Philippines general manager, said.

The Silver award in the Architecture cateory went to Megan Recato of UP Diliman, while the equivalent award in the Interior designs category went to Jhessa Mae Romero of University of San Carlos. Each received P30,000 in cash prize.

Aside from the major prizes, special prizes were also handed out during the ceremony.

For architecture, the Best Color Concept award went to Eunice Ignacio of UST, while Best Green Innovation was collared by Jan Melvin of the Technological Institute of the Philippines. Jericho Calderon of the Far Eastern University (FEU) won the People’s Choice award, and the Most Supportive School award went to FEU with 217 entries.

For the interior design category, the Best Color Concept award went to Cristiane Macarabe of University of San Carlos, while Nino Tayao of College of St. Benilde won both the Best Green Innovation and People’s Choice award. UST was declared the Most Supportive School for Interior Design with 36 entries.

Francisco said AYDA 2018 was the perfect opportunity to highlight the best of the country and showcase the brilliance of the youth. He thanked the mentors and academic partners who selflessly guided, motivated and shared their expertise to the students, and for allowing them to

Prince Lu of the University of the Philippines Mindanao (left) and Odrysa Mie Serino of the University of Santo Tomas, Gold winners for Architecture and Interior Designs categories of the Asia Young Designer Award (AYDA) Philippines 2018, respectively, receive P50,000 each from Michael Francisco (center), Nippon Paint (Coatings) Philippines general manager. join.

Nippon Paint, Francisco said, was proud to shine the spotlight on these great talents through AYDA 2018.

The AYDA 2018 judges consisted of prominent and well-established industry professionals and weresupported by the United Architects

of the Philippines, Council of Deans and Heads of Architecture Schools in the Philippines, the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers and the Council of Interior Design Educators.

For more details, go to www. youngdesigneraward.ph or visit www.nipponpaint.ph.