BW Future of Design Awards: Recognizing excellence in the design industry

The BW Future of Design Summit & Awards 2019 in association with Realty+ was held on the 17th of October at Four Seasons- Mumbai. The awards recognised and felicitated the best prototypes and finished designs by designers, architects, innovators, and businesses. The audience was witness to a number of thought-provoking presentations by design experts from varied fields. The expert speakers shared their wisdom on how design can change businesses. As the day progressed a panel discussion on 'Good Design is Good Business' explored how sustainability can be coupled with design and then monetised for not only human gains but for the planet as well. The panel was moderated by Pradyumna Vyas, Former Director, National Institute of Design and had experts such as Hari Krishnan, Executive director TBWA India, Himani Mehta Dehlvi, Costume Designer, Atul Khanna, Founder Tooltech Global Engineering PVT. Ltd. Amit B Wadhwani, Managing Director at Sai Estate Consultants, Chembur and Bharat Khetan, Promoter, Worknomics, Partner, Baked Pie LLP. Opening the discussion, Pradyumna Vyas said, “We are into the fourth industrial revolution which is where the boundaries of physical and digital are getting blurred. It’s the system, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, a lot many things are coming now with robotics and has completely changed the scenario of design. Sixty per cent of children in less than 10 years of age won’t know what job is going to be there 20 years from now. These are disruptive times.” He further added, “We are not only talking about the human-centric design but planet-centric as well. Sustainable development is the goal. Technology is an enabler. Business people have used technology for convenience without caring about how it is harming. This vicious circle of consumer thinking of making a business is leading to environmental loss and there is a need for the total model of design to evolve.” Amit Wadhwani, MD- SECCPL, pointed out "The design has become such a big subject, I hope private equity of the world doesn’t spoil this industry. I see a lot of hygiene in architects. They are today making stuff that will help developers monetise better." Himani Mehta Dehlvi spoke about how nature inspires her designs. “To me, nature is the biggest design. Nature has balance, movement, circular economy. In my work, when I do a realistic cinema, the whole movement towards using organic materials, recyclable items avoiding plastic is a choice we make as a designer. It influences as films influence a huge population.” Some of the other speakers at the event were sound designer Resul Pookutty, fashion designer Manish Malhotra, interior designer Gauri Khan, Ashiesh Shah (Architect & Interior designer), and Pratap Bose(Automobile Designer, Tata Motors) among others. As the enlightening summit came to an end the Awards evening began with the perennially beautiful Gauri Khan being honoured with Editors’ choice ‘Design Person of the Year’ along with Bhaskar Bhat, Former MD, Titan Ltd. who received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. In addition to these, 13 awards were presented to the winners in five different categories at the second edition of BW Businessworld Future of Design Summit & Awards 2019. The five different categories for design awards were, namely Space, Craft, Lifestyle, Product, and Visual. However, the jury found no suitable design worthy of being honoured in the Technology category. The winners in different categories were: SPACE  GOLD - CHURCH STREET REDEVELOPMENT (Venkataramanan Associates) SILVER – MICROSOFT OFFICE HYD (DSP Design Associates) BRONZE- ISPRAVA VILLA GOA (Isprava)   CRAFT  GOLD- SEED RAKHI  (Indibni Private Limited) SILVER – THE SPLENDOR OF KASHMIR   LIFESTYLE  GOLD – JAIPUR RUGS SILVER – POCKET SQUARE (Goulian Finch) BRONZE – AHALAYA (Tanishq)   PRODUCT  GOLD- NAADI TARANGANI (Design Directions) SILVER – E-SCOOTER (Spock - Li-ions) BRONZE – WATER ATM (Desmania)   VISUAL  SILVER - &ME (Elephant Design) BRONZE – TASTY TALES (Elephant Design)   The awards recognised and felicitated the best prototypes and finished designs by designers, architects, innovators, and businesses. The exclusive design event catered to products from across industries that are touching human lives and making them future-ready.