You may remember some time ago that TKBB ran a story on Cosentino’s promotion of a global design challenge, and you may also have seen some of Monday’s comments about the quality of talent we have in this country – well have a look at this!
UTS Design and Architecture students have made their mark in this year’s Cosentino Design Challenge, with local student, Matthew Sikora being named as one-of-four winners in the Architecture category. The Cosentino Group, the Spanish world leader in the production and distribution of innovative surfaces for architecture and design, announced the winners and highly commended works for the 7th International Cosentino Design Challenge this month in Almeria in Spain.
Cosentino Design Challenge, a competition for design, architecture and interior architecture students across the world, aims to foster the talent of students, promoting research into the different conceptual approaches to the layout of spaces, materials and the construction systems that define them, using materials made by The Cosentino Group.
The winners of the Architecture competition (awarded € 1,000 each – approximately $1500.00), were tasked with designing an outdoor kitchen from an innovative conceptual approach, using Cosentino materials. University of Technology Sydney (UTS) student, Matthew Sikora, took out one of the top architecture prizes, with his work “The Reinvention of the Barbecue Bench”.
Gary Isherwood, Country Manager for Cosentino Australia, said: “This is the first year UTS has been a partner school for the Cosentino Design Challenge, and to have a student take out one of the top architecture category is a fantastic result and something the university, and Cosentino Australia is incredibly proud of.”
In addition to Matthew Sikora, two group works from UTS were shortlisted in the top 20 in the Architecture category. This included students Benjamin Belson, Nuttaporn Pornvarojanabun and Simon Shien for their project F.A.K, and students Luke Fernandes, Altaf Khan and Jonathan Tolentino for their work P.I.V.O.T.
In the design category, students had to present an idea for “Cosentino and the office”, delivering a proposal completely open to interpretation and featuring Cosentino materials. Shortlisted among the top 20 works in this category was UTS Integrated Product Design student, Nicholas Sadowsky, for his work ‘Winged Stool’
This year’s competition saw a total of 178 applications in the Architecture category and 87 projects presented in the design category, coming from countries across Europe, America and Australia.
William Feuerman, Senior Lecturer, UTS School of Architecture, and Cosentino Design Challenge juror, comments: “Having one winner and three finalists from UTS, out of 285 international entries is an outstanding result and shows why UTS is one of the global leaders in architecture and design. It’s our first year participating in the Cosentino Design Challenge and we look forward to what innovative concepts Cosentino and our students come up with in the future.”
On behalf of TKBB we congratulate Matthew and hope this helps with his transition to a long career in design.
