Nippon Paint announces Asia Young Designer Awards 2021 India edition
New Delhi: Nippon Paint (India) Private Limited (Decorative Division), Asia’s leading paint manufacturer, announced the launch of AYDA (Asia Young Designer Award) 2021, India Edition. S Mahesh Anand, President – Decorative Paint, Nippon Paint (India), declared the theme for this 6th India edition as “Amplifying Empathy Through Design” and officially welcomed entries from students and young professionals in the field of Interior design and Architecture.
Renowned architects Ar.Biju Kuriakose, Co-founder, ArchitectureRED, Ar.Naresh Narasimhan, Principal Architect, Venkatraman Associates, and Ar.Dean D’Cruz, Co-founder, Mozaic, will be judging the Architecture category. The Interior Design Category jury includes distinguished architects Ar.Lalitha Tharani, Collaborative Architecture, Ar.Deepak Guggari, Principal Architect, Varsha & Deepak Guggari Associates, and Ar.Sonali Bhagwati, President DPA, Design Plus Architecture Pvt. Ltd.
AYDA (Asia Young Designer Awards) India Edition is open to design students and architecture students from 3 year onwards. Young professionals who are pursuing their masters in the field of Interior design and Architecture with less than a year of experience can also participate. AYDA welcomes all applications and those shortlisted will be notified. Interested participants can register here: http://www.nipponpaint-ayda.co.in
Brief for participating in AYDA 2021:
Participants must submit their projects based on the current theme “Amplifying Empathy Through Design” by October 30, 2021. Out of all the entries, 24 candidates will be shortlisted who will compete at the national finals in Chennai in January 2022. One winner from each category (Architecture and Interior Design) will be awarded the gold and silver award and cash prizes of INR 50,000 and INR 25,000, respectively. The gold winners will also receive a fully paid trip to compete at the grand finale of Nippon Paint’s Asia Young Designer Awards 2021, to compete with 15 other Asian Countries at Shanghai in March 2022. All the respective AYDA 2021 Gold Winners from 16 Asian countries will compete for the coveted Asia Young Designer of the Year Award 2021 title (Asia edition) and win a chance to attend a 6-week Harvard Design Discovery Summer Programme at Harvard University – USA, worth more than USD 10,000.
Designers of today have to deal with challenges our predecessors have never met. We live in a world where there are too many noises in design, and it gets harder by the day to stand out in the world of spatial design. At the same time, designers are burdened with having to strike a balance between commercial and environmental values as they deploy their ideas.
The role of designers of tomorrow has to be redefined with a clear vision. Designers are no longer only providing a framework for the hardware aspects of space, but they would also need to think about how people would interact with the software of the space.
AYDA wants to acknowledge the evolution of designers through the following statements:
- There is a massive paradigm shift from constructing a building to developing a city for communities.
- The focus of design has expanded aesthetics to a deeper level of emotional understanding of the needs of the people.
- Designers are required to make essential decisions in maximising commercial values while protecting the important aspects of nature.
Empathic design focuses on a set of methodologies in extracting and understanding users’ needs before deploying the design process. The challenge herewith lies in showcasing a diligent approach towards innovation by incorporating the Design Thinking approach to the design, taking into consideration how the said design or space can fulfil the needs of both people and the environment.
Speaking about the launch of Asia Young Design Award 2021, S Mahesh Anand, President – Decorative Paint, Nippon Paint India, said, “The past editions of AYDA has seen phenomenal success for Indian finalists, including a win at the last edition by Neha Harish for ‘Best Sustainable Design Award’ category. We are elated to announce the 6th edition of AYDA 2021 (India edition) and are hopeful that the participants will come up with designs which are out-of-the box and have potential to create a lasting impact. The theme for this year holds a lot of relevance to the times we live in now. Empathy can be a crucial design element for our next-gen designers. Hence, this edition of AYDA will explore the ways in which we can amplify empathy through design. Nippon Paint’s AYDA has built a close-knit network of design experts, industry groups, and top design schools through the years. We are optimistic that our efforts through AYDA will continue to encourage brilliant architecture and interior design students, encouraging them to act as catalysts and influence the built environment of the future.”