A Salt River resident came out tops at the 2023 PG Bison 1.618 Education Initiative at a special awards ceremony in Johannesburg last week.
Carmen Gregan, an interior design student at Design Time School of Interior Design, took honours in the competition, which is aimed at showcasing the creativity, innovation and skills of emerging young architects and interior designers.
The competition also provides contestants a platform to gain recognition from industry professionals and create valuable connections within the design community.
Tiago Loureiro Goncalves, an interior design student at the University of Johannesburg, was the runner-up, while Kayla van Speyk, a student at Vega School Cape Town finished third.
Gregan said: “I am excited about the future. This is a big accomplishment for my career.” This year’s brief required the students to design a dream desert oasis consisting of a luxury residence in the Karoo, with entertainment areas and landscaped surrounds, celebrating the basic human needs of eating, sleeping, bathing and socialising, using the four elements of fire, water, earth and air.
Gregan explained her winning design, entitled “The Chrono”, was inspired by the passage of time and how over time humans are negatively affecting the environment.
“Part of the brief was to use the existing padstal (farm stall) on the site. I turned it into a ruin, and that represented how nature would be if humans continued. In contrast, I designed these terrariums that run parallel to my building and represent how nature will thrive without human interference.
“To further explore my concept of time in my elevation and plans I took inspiration from a timeline and my buildings have different heights and lengths.”
Gregan said she hoped her design would inspire people to preserve the environment. “The message I would like to bring across is that humans need to take a step back and look at how they are impacting the environment. I think my design brought that through.”
She explained it took her about five weeks to design the project. As the winner, Gregan, and her lecturer won a cash prize of R50 000 each, the runner-up took home R25 000 and third place won R10 000.
Gregan’s lecturer, Anél Joubert, said the competition brief was an exciting challenge that they embraced as soon as they received it.
“It was a privilege working with Carmen on her design; from the initial context analysis to developing her concept of time and its contrast between human impact and nature’s resilience, her creativity flowed into her layout and design. It was evident that she enjoyed the design process.”
Nombuso Mwelase, Communications Manager at PG Bison, congratulated Gregan and said this year’s competition attracted a high number of entries from accredited architecture and interior design institutions across the country.
Livia Coetzee, 2023 competition brief author and judge from DHQ, said most of the entries were of a high standard and demonstrated creative prowess, attention to detail, and ability to push boundaries within the field of interior design and architecture, and this made our task as judges challenging.
“If this is what institutions are producing in terms of graduates, then South Africa has a lot of beauty and style to look forward to.”
