An Award-Winning Design By A CPUT Graduate Is Currently Showcased In Dubai
WORLDWIDE RECOGNITION: Nicky van den Aardweg (right) and Colleen Cocotos with Nicky’s My Tova, which was chosen as a project exhibiting at the Global Grad Week, which forms part of Dubai Design Week 2017
An award-winning design by a CPUT graduate is currently on display at an international exhibition showcasing “ground-breaking works from the world’s leading design schools”.
My Tova, designed by Nicky van den Aardweg, a 2016 Interior Design graduate, is a children’s backpack that unfolds into a padded stool and writing pad. The design is one of 200 projects showcased at this year’s Global Grad Show, which forms part of the Dubai Design Week taking place from 13 to 18 November.
Last year My Tova won a prestigious iF Public Value Student Design Award in the category “Empowering the Individual” in Munich, Germany. The theme for the 2017 Global Grad Show in Dubai is Connect, Empower, Sustain with Nicky’s design again falling within the “empower” category.
“I feel so honoured that my design solution to a problem so common in developing countries receives recognition from my peers worldwide. Many rural children in South Africa are taught under trees because there are a shortage of classrooms. My Tova is a light, easily assembled solution to this prevalent problem,” says Nicky, who works as a Spatial Concept and Environmental Designer at the International Trend Institute in Durban.
“I’ve had a front-row seat in watching Nicky grow as a designer. The Global Grad Show brings together 92 of the world’s best design institutes from over 40 countries, so exhibiting here is no mean feat,” adds Colleen Cocotos, a Senior Lecturer and Programme Coordinator in CPUT’s Department of Architectural Technology and Interior Design, who accompanied Nicky to Dubai.