American Standard, a LIXIL power brand, recently held a grand awards ceremony and exhibition to honor the American Standard Design Award (ASDA) 2023 winners and finalists. The event, which showcased purposeful design solutions for multi-generational living across Asia Pacific, took place at The Arts House Singapore on July 12, 2023.
The ASDA was created as a platform to nurture and recognize exceptional tertiary student designer talent in the industry. LIXIL, through the American Standard brand, is delighted to honor the winners and showcase their exceptional ideas. For over 140 years, the American Standard brand has continuously set new benchmarks in delivering bathroom solutions that combine purposeful designs and pioneering technologies.
This year’s theme “A Home to Love, A Space for Everyone,” aimed to explore the transformative power of design in creating a multi-generational bathroom space that resonates with every member of the family.
The ASDA welcomed participation from student designers from tertiary institutions from ten countries across the Asia Pacific. This competition’s second edition received a two-fold increase in qualified entries from the previous year, with up to nearly 1,500 entries.
The entries were judged at two levels – National Level and APAC Level. At the national level, a judging panel made up of architecture and design luminaries from each country evaluated entries received from local participants. The regional competition was conducted across Asia-Pacific and the First Prize Winners from each country were evaluated by the Asia-Pacific judging panel to determine the APAC Grand Prize Winner.
The national winners were Aevan Georgeline de Jesus from the Philippines, Sin Ponleu from IndoChina (Cambodia/Laos/Myanmar), Azra Hrnjic from Australia, Riya Awati from India, Grace Wong Jing Yee from Malaysia, Rossalinda from Singapore, Marisa Chonpracha from Thailand, and Duong Pham Ngoc Hoai from Vietnam.
After an exciting regional judging round, IndoChina’s Sin Ponleu emerged as the APAC Grand Prize Winner for his design titled “One space, One love.”
Ponleu expressed his happiness on winning the APAC grand prize, “I am very grateful for this achievement; it has been such an incredible experience for me to move forward to higher levels. With this achievement, I will remember to keep pushing myself to improve and continuously learn new things, all in the pursuit of enhancing the quality of life through architecture.”
Following the awards ceremony, the winners and finalists attended a design workshop at the LIXIL Design Studio. The workshop was an opportunity for the participants to further explore their creative prowess and gain insights from award-winning industry experts. Additionally, the attendees enjoyed an architectural tour and visit the LIXIL showroom in Singapore housing solutions from American Standard, GROHE and INAX.
The winner from the Philippines, Aevan Georgeline de Jesus, also shared what she learned during their mentoring sessions. “I learned the importance of designing highly functional bathrooms with an emphasis on rooting my concept in true global Asian design sensibility. Beyond the deeply intricate and beautiful Asian design that endlessly surprises, every design challenge is an opportunity to interpret and celebrate our culture. This is our way to spread awareness whereby users become immersed in the spaces we deliver,“ she said.
De Jesus is a student from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde who showcased her winning design “THE GRID: Close Family Ties, An Ode to the Warmth of Home” during the ASDA 2023. Her piece is inspired by the warmth of close family ties that is typical of Asian homes. It aims to resonate the same as the space ensures interactions without disrupting the functionality of the bathroom.
The ASDA 2023 national winners each won a cash prize of USD 2,000 with the APAC Grand Prize winner walking away with a total of USD 5,000 cash prize.
Hermie Limbo, Leader, LIXIL Water Technology, Philippines commented: “We are encouraged by the success of the ASDA to uplift the next generation of talents in the architecture and design community. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Aevan Georgeline de Jesus for making the Philippines proud by winning the national round and advancing as a strong regional contender. This year’s ASDA theme of multi-generational homes resonates with how the American Standard brand has been creating better homes for over 60 years in the Philippines, earning the trust of Filipino families for delivering stylish, high quality, and dependable bathrooms. We are looking forward to working even more closely with the architecture and designer community, and our industry partners, to improving the quality of homes and the lives of Filipinos.”
Earlier this year, the new American Standard global brand identity renewed its focus of improving homes around the world, while inspiring people to create homes that they will love every day. Based on the new brand claim of “LIFE.LOVE.HOME”, the American Standard brand visuals and “American Standard Red” implies love and passion, to evoke a closer emotional affinity with consumers. Consumers in the Philippines can look forward to the launch of exciting new collections under the refreshed brand identity in the near future.