Is your teen considering a career in design? If so, it’s worth considering the school of design at Raffles Design Institute, a faculty of Raffles College of Higher Education, which has, yet again, produced incredible talents, with a number of awards under its belt. We speak to the young designers (and marvel at such talent in those so-young!) of three prestigious third-party awards on their inspirations and ambitions.
The Asia Young Designer Award by Nippon Paint
Gold award and Fulfilling-purpose award
21-year-old Raffles Designer, Ferdy Cheng Budha Gautama from Indonesia, who was awarded the Gold award and Fulfilling-purpose award won the hearts of the judges at Nippon Paint Singapore with his design, “Guilty Pleasure”, an integrated restaurant in a prison. This award had the theme; “Be bold, be free, be you”, and was created to celebrate and inspire talented interior design and architecture individuals to push across boundaries with their work.
Guilty Pleasure is an integrated restaurant design project as a prison service to improve food and social sustainability in a medium-large scale establishment. It is classified into four major spaces: restaurant, farm, retail, and pre-release centre.
The Spatial Design Award (SPADE) by Design Confederation
Gold award
Raffles Designer, Ferdy Cheng Budha Gautama also picked up the Gold Award in Public Space Design as well as the Silver Award in Retail Design. “My goal was a contribution to society through design, and to achieve that, I dedicated, refined, and bettered myself to produce something of high quality that was also meaningful– this focus has brought me success,” said Ferdy.
More about “Anamorphosis”
Taking inspiration from anamorphism, a concept that dictates a perception of an object to be interpreted from two perspectives, has giving birth to the idea to create a space by morphing the brand’s monograms and iconoclast into various interior design element that is very flexible to accommodate different scenario of daily and event functions. This takes form in the space planning, aesthetic, and the main design element of the space, whereas the main broad walk can be used as runway for fashion show, simultaneously, its retail area will become an exhibition space, through the implementation of versatile and mobile furniture.
Nexus Library concept
The concept behind the library is inspired by the concept of time capsule, and envisioning itself as a “nexus” where people would be able to store information, history, activity, or taste, pressure, vibration – contribution that creates a sense of place, and history that are currently diminishing in the very fast-growing city of Singapore.
Silver award
19-year-old Raffles Designer, Billy from Indonesia (as he prefers to be known) received the Silver Award in Residential Design. When asked to describe his project, Billy said; “SOHO HDB provided a solution to a Singapore problem – with the support of my lecturer, I created a design which bettered the function of HDB flats by designing a space that afforded flexible usage for the homeowner.”
The SOHO HDB provides flats that are flexible allowing both living and working in the same place. A flexible yet simple design of flat supports the usage of the space that in the working hours, space becomes an office and afterward, the space con be easily used as a residential area.
Bronze award
22-year-old Raffles Designer, Natalia Anggraini took home the Bronze award in F&B Design. She said that her Major Studio Project course at Raffles helped her to develop the skills she needed to complete the project. “Apart from the content of the course itself, my lecturers are a big part of my success in this project and play an integral role in basically everything I do in terms of interior design and design research.”
The Pitstop
The term “reconnecting” concept is applied obliquely to the overall floor plan which describes an interconnection linked to one another in the form of a division of four separated zones, namely: the restaurant, office, outdoor courtyard herbal garden, and the culinary workshop linking and supporting one another. In addition to that, the reconnecting walkway is designed along the hallway which acts as a connector linking to the three major zones: the community restaurant (reconnecting to the society), outdoor herbal garden (reconnecting to the soil, ground & nature), and the culinary workshop (reconnecting to the education). It is to create an integration of re-connectivity between the elderly and the younger generations by letting the latter serve the elderly with their learnt education to give back to the community and be a part of the effort to preserve the ageing issues in Singapore.
The Young Designer Award by Design Intervention
The Young Designer awards were launched in 2015 by Singapore-based interior design firm Design Intervention, helmed by Nikki Hunt and Andrea Savage, with the aim of supporting young local designers.
A word from the winner
21-year-old Raffles Designer, Aung Naing Linn from Myanmar, bagged the top prize. The judges were impressed by Linn’s “remarkable attention to detail and the unique touch in his design of the ‘Tomlinson Heights Condominium’”.
When asked what inspired his striking design, Linn says; “The concept was to create a royal space in which the clients can relax and be themselves, while enjoying the finer things in life.” He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Interior Design and will graduate in 2017.
A word from a finalist
18-year-old Raffles Designer, Velarde Charmille Grace Roldan from the Philippines, was a finalist for the award. “To do this project, I took into consideration the needs of my clients, the environment and local context. I then infused interior and architectural design elements I deemed suitable into designing the space – creating a place I would proudly call my own,” she said in describing her work process. Grace is currently pursuing an Advanced Diploma in Interior Design at Raffles and will graduate in 2018.
A Word from the College
“Success is not a coincidence, success is by design.”
Presented by
Raffles College of Higher Education
Raffles Education Square
51 Merchant Road
6338 5288 | enquiries@raffles-college.edu.sg
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