Dubai Municipality joined hands with Saint-Gobain to organise the first-ever UAE national competition for architectural students, as part of Saint-Gobain’s Architecture Students Contest, an international competition held since 2005 in several countries around the world and hosted this year in Dubai.
During the national event, held at the Dubai Municipality Training Centre, 32 selected teams from the UAE’s seven top architectural universities presented their designs for the unique "Multi-Comfort" building to a panel of sustainability experts and design professionals. Students from Manipal University bagged first and second positions while students of the UAE University stood third. Mohammed Mubarak Al Mutaiwei, Assistant Director-General of Dubai Municipality for Communications and Community Affairs, honoured the winners with prizes.
The team that came first comprised Radhika Mehta, Elvis Shrestha and Henan Rehman while the team in the second place included Amandeep Singh, Sasan Zahrin and Judith D'Silva from Manipal University. The third team from the UAE University included Shamma Al Kaabi, Fatima Ba-Tuq and Maha Al Luwaimi. A special prize was given based on public votes to the team from Manipal University comprising Fenil Aksheshkumar Patel and Yvan DA Pereira. The top three designs from the national contest will join the designs from other national competitions, which are being held simultaneously in more than 30 countries, from Belgium and Bulgaria to Ukraine and the UK, as well as the best online entries, to go forward for judging in the international Architecture Students Contest, which will also be staged this year in Dubai from 12th to 14th May.
Under the terms of the Architecture Students Contest, the building that the students design must follow the principles of Saint-Gobain’s ground-breaking Multi-Comfort House design, incorporating Passivhaus energy efficiency standards, superior indoor air quality, high levels of acoustics, visual and thermal comfort and other key sustainability features all seamlessly integrated with superior design aesthetics. As per the directives of the municipality’s Planning Department, the building is to be located in Dubai Cultural Village, next to Mohammed bin Rashid library, an area of unique architecture that fuses traditional Arabic heritage with the latest modern design techniques further challenging the design skills of the students.
More than 2,200 participants from 170 universities in 35 countries have registered for the international stage of the competition, which will be held for three days in Dubai next month. Organised by Saint-Gobain and Dubai Municipality, in partnership with Dubai Properties and the Environmental Centre for Arab Towns, it will see around 60 winning teams from the national and online competitions presenting their designs to an international jury.
© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2018.
