September 21st, 2015: Canadian University Dubai (CUD) architecture student Rishem Adnan has been crowned runner-up in the inaugural Marina Home Project Remake design competition, held recently in Dubai. Her dramatic transformation of the canvas product into a chair-cum-easel saw Rishem take second prize against fellow design students from CUD and American University in Dubai.
The competition challenged senior students to take a simple chair and use their skills and creativity to transform it into a winning design to reflect their personality and flair. Participants had just seven days to turn their design concepts into reality and present them to the judging panel, which assessed the entries based on creativity, design functionality, quality of execution and optimum usage.
Speaking about her inspiration for the design, in which she took the basic canvas chair and remodeled it to create an artist’s easel, Rishem said, “As young artists it is our responsibility to promote art amongst the youth in developing countries.
“I had a vision of a young boy living in a remote village who dreams of becoming an artist one day. As well as a place to sit, the piece would provide him with the tools to pursue his passion. All he has to do is slide out the top of the seat, pull out his palette, rotate it to an angle of his choosing and begin. With the removal of the legs, the chair could be adapted as the boy grows, and stay with him throughout his journey as an artist.”
In all, seven students from CUD made it into the elite top 10 of the competition. Their designs were exhibited at this month’s Commercial Interior Design (CID) Awards, an annual event that attracts the who’s who of the design community in the region, and will now be viewed by the public at installations in Marina Home stores.
Among the judges for the competition with Co-Founder of Marina Home, Khurshid Vakil, who said, “These young people are the future of the design world and this competition was about providing them with a platform to showcase how they will take that world forward, as well as creating an environment for collaboration across the whole design community. As the first competition of its kind among students, we were impressed by the level of engagement and the creativity of the designs.”
Fellow CUD finalists Aya Faour, Meerah Sultan, Amna Alamir, Fereshteh Kalantari, Alaa Rashed and Cobra Jahany will see their designs join Rishem’s at various Marina Home roadshows and art fairs throughout the coming year.
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