Nippon Paint Young Designer Award 2016 rewards talent amongst young architects and interior designer

 From left: General Manager – Sales and Marketing Nemantha Abeysinghe, Manager Corporate Sales Zulfikar Raju – both from Nippon Paint Lanka, UDA Chairman Dr. Jagath Munasinghe, SLIA Vice President Archt. D.H. Wijewardene, Gold Winner Chandima Gawarammana from CSA, Head of CSA Professor Lal Balasooriya and University of Moratuwa Head of Architect faculty Dr. Gamini Weerasinghe

Nippon Paint, a leading paint manufacturer in Sri Lanka hosted the award ceremony to recognise the winners of Nippon Paint Asia Young Designer Award 2016 (AYDA) recently at the Water’s Edge, where two Gold Winners from Sri Lanka – one from the Architecture discipline and one from Interior-Designing discipline, were awarded Rs. 100,000 each and were selected to undergo training in March 2017 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia with the entire trip being sponsored by Nippon Paint. 

Pratheepan Kalaieesan from City School of Architecture (CSA) and Chandima Gawarammana from University of Moratuwa hence stand a chance to emerge as a Platinum winner by competing among 28 other participants from Asia in the Final competition for the AYDA group. AYDA or the Asia Young Designer Award, which aims to inspire young Architects and Interior Designers to unleash their creativity, inventiveness and further strengthen their professionalism, was first launched in 2008. The Sri Lankan phase of AYDA 2016 commenced on 13 June under the theme ‘Be Bold, Be Free, Be You’, initiating a colourful journey of education, training and exposure finally culminating in recognition and opportunity for further training.  

“Nippon Paint Sri Lanka has been very fortunate in getting the collaboration and cooperation from Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA), the country’s apex body on Architecture in conducting AYDA, here in Sri Lanka,” commented Nippon Paint Lanka Managing Director Raja Hewabowala.   

The competition took place under the total supervision of SLIA (Sri Lanka Institute of Architects) and the institute took the leading role of selecting the winners under different categories. Whilst the competition was open to all 3rd and 4th year students of architecture 2nd and 3rd year students in Interior Designing were also given the chance to participate. SLIA selected winners from the two disciplines and awarded Gold, Silver, Best Colour and Green Innovation awards each. 

The two Silver winners Muditha Maduranga from Architecture and Namika Gurusinghe from interior designing both hailing from University of Moratuwa were granted Rs. 50,000 each. The winner under the category ‘Best Colour Choice’ Sandun Darshana Ekanayaka from City School of Architecture was awarded Rs. 25,000. Four other students of both disciplines won honorary awards, namely, Shithija Shehan from the University of Moratuwa and Sandun Darshana Ekanayaka from the City School of Architecture in the Architecture discipline and Kaushi Rodrigo and Sajith Sivayogaraj from the University of Moratuwa in the Interior Designing. 

City School of Architecture and the University of Moratuwa each won Nippon Paint worth Rs. 50,000.  During the event, Sri Lankan students of Architecture and Interior Designing received the rare opportunity of obtaining training and exposure to hone their creativity to be recognised among the Asia’s best.  Nippon Paint and AYDA was also fortunate to present the Sri Lankan competition at the ArcAsia Roundtable discussion which took place on 13 July, in Colombo, Sri Lanka – an opportune event indeed.

Commenting on the initiative, SLIA Vice President Archt. D.H. Wijewardene said, “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Nippon Paint for giving upcoming Sri Lankan Architects and Interior Designers such a rare opportunity. The students were fortunate enough to be part of this great Asian drive with 15 participant countries in sparking creativity among young designers. The best prize however would be the chance to take part in the final competition in Indonesia.”