Design with Heart
Students from the University of Santo Tomas ( UST) were declared big winners at the Nippon Paint Young Designer Award ( NPYDA) 2015, a regional competition across 12 Asia Pacific countries organized by Nippon Paint (Coatings) Philippines. For following this year’s platform “Design with Heart,”
Jose Augustine Ricarte was declared the Gold winner for the Architecture category with his entry “Marikina Link.” While
Martha Joyce Tomas — who also bagged the Best Green Innovation award — won the Gold award for the Interior Design category with her entry “Biojet.” Each of the Gold winners received P50,000 cash prize, a six- month internship at Lor Calma & Partners (for Interior Design) and Casas+ Architects (for Architecture).
Michael Chung, Nippon Paint (Coatings) Philippines general manager, said, “This year, we were all witnesses to how NPYDA has grown bolder and more promising. We are very confident on how this year’s entries can strongly compete with its Asian counterparts.” Architect and interior designer Eduardo Calma remarked
that it is a privilege for professionals like himself to welcome outstanding, young talents and help them sharpen their eye for design even more.
Other awardees for Architecture category were UST’s Marko Alab Adviento, Silver; Far Eastern University’s
Ruben Felizarte, Best Colour Choice; and UST’s
Kae Ann Aguila, Best Green Innovation.
For the Interior Design category, other awardees were University of the Philippines’ Courtney
Gatus, Silver and Best Colour Choice. The University of Santo Tomas was hailed as the Best Supporting College/ University for both Architecture and Interior Design categories.
The NPYDA 2015 was presented in collaboration with the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers (PIID), Council of Interior Design Educators (CIDE), United Architects of the Philippines ( UAP) and Council of Deans and Heads in Architecture Schools in the Philippines (CODHASP), Lor Calma and Partners, Casas+ Architects and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).