L-R: Dayo Oduleye, Business Development Manager, Design Genre Consultants, the winners – Odunrombi Bambi and Makinde Emmanuel, Arc. Adetokunbo Ilesanmi, Head of Department, Architecture, OAU, Miss Karipre Beredugo, Project Architect, Design Genre Consultants and Mr. Oke Temidayo, President, Ife Architecture Student Association, IFASA at the design competition held at OAU Architecture department, Ile – Ife, Osun state.
Design Genre Consultants, a Lagos based firm of architectural, planning, urban and interior design professionals has announced winners of its yearly design competition for student studying Architecture.
The team comprising: Odunrombi Bambi and Makinde Emmanuel both MSC level student of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU emerged first position winner with a cash prize of One hundred thousand naira. Team Adeniran Timileyin, Babalola Tolulope and Kunlere Adetunji all 300 level students of the same school came second with a cash prize of seventy thousand naira while the trio of Adejumo Andrew, Soetan Phillips and Oderinde Adeola also 300 level students of OAU who emerged third position carting away cash prize of fifty thousand naira as prize money.
The grand finale which held at the OAU’s Architecture Department Ile-Ife, Osun State witnessed the 11 shortlisted groups making presentations on a project brief titled: sustainable design of a mixed use complex in downtown Lagos. The contestants were asked to come up with ingenious building design that will combine both residential, commercial and office structures using sustainable and environment friendly materials among others.
A 4 –man panel of judges which had Architect Goke Omigbodun, Osun state chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Architect Moses Ajah, Student Affairs chairman, Osun state NIA, Architect Adetokunbo Ilesanmi, Head of Department, Architecture, OAU, and Architect Onabanjo a lecturer from the Department came out with the list of the three winning team.
The Managing Director, Design Genre Consultants, Mr. Anthony Okoye sponsor of the competition says the desire to deepen the talent base of students by exposing them to real life architectural projects has been the main driving force in its sponsorship enterprise.
“The purpose of our support of the design competition is to make sustainable design second nature to architects in Nigeria and also contribute to student education because we believe in deepening their knowledge by allowing these emerging architects the opportunity to gain exposure on real world architectural projects to enrich the quality of education they receive and which will in turn enhance the continuous sustainable improvement of the Architecture profession,” he disclosed.
“We are happy first at the number of entries. We had well over 20 entries. We also observed the progress made by the contestants/ students in their power point and 3D presentations and their sustained interest in the competition this no doubt goes to confirm that our commitment to adding value to the practice of Architecture in Nigeria is yielding positive results, he stated.
The duo of Odunrombi Bambi and Makinde Emmanuel who emerge first position when asked what strategy they adopted to winning the contest declared:
“It was team work, keeping it simple in conception, and building on existing frameworks. These were factors we think may have helped us to impress the judges and winning the competition.”
On his part, Osun State chairman, Nigeria Institute of Architects, Arc. Goke Omigbodun in a short address to the students commended the level of improvement in the contestants’ presentations but urged them to do more research to advance and maintain the high ranking the OAU Architecture department is noted for. He also emphasized the need for the student to embrace student membership of the Institute as this remains a prerequisite to enjoying a blissful professional career in Architecture.
While pledging the company continued support of the competition, the business development manager, Mr. Dayo Oduleye disclosed that the competition which is the third in the series is a Give-back- to–society initiative.
“We are sponsoring the contest to give back to the school –Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU because it is the alma mater of our managing director Architect Anthony Okoye and in the process; we hope to observe and identify the natural talent of students just beginning their journey into architecture and get their fresh perspective on form and design. We hope to also make the competition more interesting next year by including as part of the price – a visit to some interesting architectural sites in Dubai, Europe and South Africa,” he added.
Design Genre Consultants is a fast growing architectural consulting and construction firm established in 2008 with the aim of creating contemporary designs that suits the lifestyle of their clients. The company’s mission is to achieve excellence in all areas of endeavor while recreating a functional and aesthetically pleasant environment with designs ranging from residential building designs to public building designs. It prides itself as problem solvers who approach projects from the standpoint that good design must solve the relevant problems and be aesthetically pleasing.
A fusion of functionality and aesthetic resolution, with a consciousness of the environment and the psychological effects of design on people lives.
