Pune: Tanay Bothara, a 23-year-old student from the Vivekanand Institute of Technology’s Padmabhushan Dr Vasantdada Patil College of Architecture, bagged the Asian Young Designer of the Year award in the architecture category.Bothara beat over 8,400 applicants from 15 countries across Asia to win the coveted title. He is the first Indian to win gold in the 11 years of this contest. He received a cash prize of $10,000 and will get an opportunity to attend a fully-funded six-week Design Discovery programme at Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Boston, USA.Bothara’s project, on the theme ‘children uprooted’, explored the ways of transforming war-ridden spaces in Syria to provide a conducive environment for the long-term well-being of the country’s children. In doing so, he hopes to help these children realize that they have the power to rebuild their country.“Syrian children and youth want to do their part when peace eventually returns to Syria. Their situations may differ, but their dreams are the same — to have a future and to rebuild Syria as peacemakers. The tools they need are elementary: equipped minds, healthy bodies and self-belief,” he said in his design statement.Bothara saw a video of Syrian kids crying out their pain about how the war had uprooted their childhood during his fourth year. Disturbed by the video, he questioned if art and architecture can help find the lost childhood of these kids. “Many such questions was the reason I started my thesis,” Bothara said.The Asia Young Designer Award was launched in 2008 as part of Nippon Paint’s vision to nurture the next generation of design talents. The event serves as a platform to inspire architecture and interior design students to develop their skills through cross-learning opportunities and networking with key industry players as well as fellow architecture and interior design peers in the region.

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