PG Bison 1.618 Education Initiative celebrates 30 years
This year, the PG Bison 1.618 Education Initiative celebrates 30 years of creativity to showcase the work of up-and-coming South African architecture and interior design students.
26/07/2022
In 2022, the PG Bison 1.618 Education
Initiative celebrates 30 years of creativity and
showcasing the work of up-and-coming South
African architecture and interior design
students. The competition was first launched in
1992 and started out as a means to introduce
third-year students to PG Bison’s products. Over
three decades, it has grown into a respected
educational initiative and a highlight on
institution calendars. Many of the winners and
finalists have gone on to achieve great success.
“Winning this competition was an incredible
tool to jumpstart my career,” says Callie van
der Merwe, who won the first edition of the
competition in 1992 and is now the founder of
Design Partnership Australia. “Being the winner
of the PG Bison 1.618 Education Initiative
elevated my profile beyond that of designers who
had been in the game for much longer and made me
a better competitor, even though I was still
young.”
Andrew Mboyi, the winner of the
2013 edition of the competition, is a designer
working across multiple disciplines. “The PG
Bison 1.618 Education Initiative opened up a
vast number of opportunities,” he says. “I’d go
as far as saying it allowed me to pick who to
work for, instead of waiting for employers to
pick me.”
Lian Markham, Communications
Manager at PG Bison, says that the 1.618
Education Initiative speaks to PG Bison’s
strategy of being a purpose-led business that
creates a positive social and environmental
change. “The focus is on architecture and interior design
students that will work towards creating the built environment of
the future,” says Markham. “This competition is a
way of not only allowing them the opportunity to
experience a real-world brief without the
pressures that usually come with one, but to
expose them to important social themes to help
them to understand the impact they can have in
shaping the world we will all live in.”
The 2022 brief
Every year, a site is selected for the new competition brief based on where the previous year’s winner was studying. The 2021 winner, Zander Etienne Deysel, was studying architecture at Nelson Mandela University, so for 2022, the competition brief is set in the Kouga region. It’s themed “Living Big” and requires students to develop a proposal for a mixed-use residential and retail space for the Coega Development Corporation, with residential units of various sizes.
Nathaniel Wakefield, director at Batley Partners – a design-focused architecture and interior design consultancy based in Johannesburg – is one of the competition judges and helped us to design the brief.
“The purpose of my brief
centres around
the students finding a authentic and practical solution to the real-world
lack of housing, and particularly a problem for workers in the
area,” he explains. “Any solutions presented must be a
workable, adaptable and modular model for use
in other regions, where workers could live close to
work and avoid spending exorbitant sums of money
on transport.”
He encourages students to
remember that as architects and interior
designers, they will not only be designing
buildings, but places where people will live and
interact. “We must provide the correct
accommodation and offer the right solution for
the problem. People need dignity and homes that
they can live in and have a sense of pride,” he
says. “It's so much more important than just
providing square boxes for people to live in.
Basically, we need to create environments where
people can interact on a social level when we
design these developments.”
The prizes
The winning student and their lecturer each win
a cash prize of R50 000, while the runner-up
takes home R25 000 and third-place wins R10 000.
Each of the top 10 finalists selected is also
invited to a special awards ceremony, with
travel and hospitality covered by PG Bison, and
those who do not place in the top three each
enjoy a cash prize of R2 000.
“We are
looking forward to seeing what this year’s
entrants produce,” says Markham. “We are always
impressed and inspired by what our students
deliver, and by the creativity South Africa’s
young talent has to offer.”
For more
information, visit the PG Bison 1.618 Education
Initiative website, www.1sixoneeight.co.za.
As a proudly South African company, PG Bison is proud to inspire beautiful homes and their experience spans over one hundred years of creating and manufacturing solutions for beautiful and functional spaces that includes kitchens bathrooms and storage solutions for bedrooms, living rooms and offices. PG Bison’s brands have become household names in their own rights. They include: MelaWood, MelaWood SupaGloss, MelaWood SupaMatt, MelaWood SupaTexture, SupaWood, Formica LifeSeal Worktops and BisonBord. For more information, visit https://pgbison.co.za/.