It’s the third edition of the Space Nurtures programme and to shake things up a bit, this year’s student competition has departed from a ‘furniture-led’ design brief.

The youthful participants have instead been tasked to come up with a concept sketch of a graphical pattern that reflects the spirit of Vitra’s most illustrious designers – Charles and Ray Eames, Verner Panton or Alexander Girard – but one that’s set in the context of Singapore today.

Space Nurtures 2014 winners: (left) Nurul Azyyati Binte Mohamad Azmi (right) Yeo Wei Ling Jamie

A partnership between Space Furniture and Vitra, and supported by the DesignSingapore Council, the Space Nurtures programme was established in 2012 with the aim of nurturing Singapore’s pool of young design talents.

Azy’s design is inspired by Alexander Girard’s work where simple geometric shapes have been turned into the national symbol of Singapore, the lion

This year, 20 finalists were selected to enter into the final phase of producing prototypes of their designs. The patterns had to be applied onto a cushion cover, and a homeware/accessory had to be included as an extension of the collection to showcase the versatility of the pattern.

In Jamie’s ‘Making Waves’, rows of lines form an abstract shape of Singapore, reflecting the ‘unexpectedness and quirk’ that’s in the same spirit as Vitra’s designers

The judges in the final round were Brendon Lim from IMAJIN, SP Tan from Axis Point Design and Yah-Leng Yu from Foreign Policy Design. The two winners they have picked are Nurul Azyyati Binte Mohamad Azmi, a first year student from the Department of 3D Design/Interior and Exhibition at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and Yeo Wei Ling Jamie, a final year student from the School of Design and Environment/Industrial Design at the National University of Singapore.

Product extension of ‘Making Waves’

As part of their win, the aspiring designers will now be going on an all-expense-paid week-long summer design workshop led by Formafantasma at Domaine de Boisbuchet, France, followed by a week-long attachment with Vitra in Weil am Rhein, Switzerland.

Upon their return, they will be involved in organising a prototype exhibition cum peer sharing event, details of which will be announced soon.