Beating 8,500 students from 14 countries to the theme of “Forward: Challenging Design Boundaries” at Singapore was a big challenge for the 23-year-old Tanay Bothara from Pune.
The belief that space can impact emotional well-being led Tanay Bothara, a student of city-based Padmabhushan Vasantdada Patil College of Architecture, to design play spaces for children of war-torn Syria and win the Nippon’s Asia Young Designer Award 2019 in Singapore on Tuesday.
“I used colour theory and designed spaces for play and learning using, among others green which is a colour that calms and red which is a colour that charges energy into a space. Learning areas had cool colours and play areas had colours that purge energy in my design,” added Tanay.
Tanay was awarded Rs 50,000 as the winner from India and $10,000 for the Asia Young Designer Award.
“I donated Rs 50,000 to non-governmental organisations in Syria that work in the field of children’s education,” said Tanay. He award also entitles Tanay to a fully-funded design discovery programme at Harvard University.
Established in 2008, the Asia Young Designer Awards is part of Nippon Paint’s vision to nurture the region’s next generation of socially-conscious designers. It is the only award in Asia for young aspiring architects and designers that strive to inspire them to be future beacons of change in our society.