Designing The Next Normal
The coronavirus pandemic provides a dramatic - and demanding - backdrop to one of the leading interior design competitions in Asia Pacific
The call for entries to the prestigious Design Excellence Award (DEA) remains open until August 31, 2021. Interior designers in Singapore and Asia Pacific may submit their commercial, residential and public design projects to the annual competition organized by the Interior Design Confederation Singapore (IDCS).
The ongoing global health challenge that has disrupted human life across the globe is the looming background of the competition this year. Speaking to the media, IDCS President Cameron Woo reveals that DEA 2021 will focus on “interior design projects that showcase design innovation which improves the visual and sensory impact, as well as the quality of the built environment to meet the needs of (the) new Covid-19 (affected) world”.
A group of internationally renowned designers will serve as panel of judges this year – the competition’s eighth edition. It includes IDCS President Woo, last year’s Interior Designer of the Year awardee, Bill Bensley, Mike Lim, and celebrity designers Genevieve Gorder, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, and Tyler Wisler.
Twenty-six categories make up the competition’s two streams: Interior Design Excellence Awards (I-DEA) for professional interior designers and firms, and Spatial Design Awards (SPADE) for students. The popular Best Sustainable Design category under the I-DEA professional track returns this year, as Best Design Media category for design media publications, covering the Interior Design industry across Asia Pacific, makes its debut.
Last year, IDCS received 163 competition entries for both professional and student competition tracks – 77 for the 23 categories under the I-DEA, and 86 for the nine SPADE categories. Of these 92 awards were given out across 32 categories of DEA 2020.
Entries submission closes at midnight, Singapore time, on August 31, 2021.
Click here for more information and submission guidelines on Design Excellence Award 2021.