SIX THOMASIANS bagged major awards in the 2016 Asia Young Designer Award, including two podium places and a special citation.
Third-year architecture student James Tad Bardon won the silver award in the architecture category for his sustainable and environment-friendly reconstruction proposal of the Sucat South Station in Parañaque.
“I wanted to create a multi-modal structure that will give vibrance to the place since Sucat is a very congested area,” Bardon told the Varsitarian during the awarding ceremony last Nov. 24 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel.
A heat-pump system installation, which balances the distribution of heat and air, highlighted Bardon’s reconstruction proposal. The system’s structure resembles an air-conditioner, but is more efficient and affordable.
Bardon was joined by fellow UST architecture students Franz Christopher Diaz and Miguel Feliciano.
John Mark Mapa, an interior design student, bagged the “Best Green Innovation” special award for “d’Ahon Marikeno Center,” a gymnasium design whose title was derived from the Filipino term “ahon,” which means “to rise.”
The proposal is a leaf-shaped gymnasium that will house a day care center, an activity center, an evacuation center and a public library.
Mapa’s entry applied solar panels on the roof structure which, according to his estimate, will cover 60 to 70 percent of the electricity consumption of the center. His design also featured a self-sustaining irrigation supply and recycling system.
Thomasians Julia Katrina Bawi and Audrey Gayle Gaffud also made it to the top 10 in the interior design category.
Formerly known as the Nippon Paint Young Designer Award, this year’s contest followed the theme “Be bold, be free, be you.” It screened 1,252 international entries, with 149 interior design entries coming from the University.
“Through [the competition], Nippon Paint urged student designers to think beyond mainstream design, explore unconventional methods and employ uninhibited creativity in taking on concepts that are out of the ordinary,” said Gladys Goh, group general manager of Nippon Paint Asia.
Established in 2008, the annual competition for young designers covers 12 Asian countries including Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
