DIDI Announces Project Design Space Competition Winners

Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI), the region’s first university exclusively dedicated to design and innovation, has announced the 10 winners of its fourth Project Design Space, the UAE’s biggest student design competition.

RAKBANK, Dubai Festival City Mall, Nike, Emirates Nature-WWF and LEGO Middle East set real-world challenges for the students to solve. All of them have shown great interest in taking the solutions forward, demonstrating the strength of design education in the UAE and how it helps future-proof businesses.

The 10 winning teams comprised five each in the grade 5 to 8 category and the grade 9 to 12 category. In the first category, Applied Technology High School (TBMEC) – Al Ain, Hartland International School – Dubai, Al Tawyeen School for Girls -Fujairah, United International Private School – Dubai, and Dubai Northern Emirates Home School Association walked away with top honours for successfully achieving the design challenges set by RAKBANK, Dubai Festival City Mall, Nike, Emirates Nature-WWF and LEGO Middle East, respectively.

In the grade 9 to 12 category, Dubai Scholars Private School, North London Collegiate School – Dubai, The Indian High School Dubai, Applied Technology High School- RAK, and Dubai National School Al Barsha beat back their competitors to complete the challenges set by the business partners.

Congratulating the winners, Mohammad Abdullah, President of DIDI, said: “It is encouraging to see the high quality of student submissions year after year. In line with the UAE’s sustained efforts to build a knowledge-based economy by developing students with future-proof skills to meet the demands of rapidly changing workspaces, DIDI is pleased to host Project Design Space to advance design thinking and education. This initiative has encouraged creativity and enabled students to explore careers in design more seriously.

“Despite the myriad challenges following the COVID-19 outbreak, students, schools, parents and our business partners rallied to ensure the competition continued seamlessly in a virtual format to achieve the same level of success as previous editions. We are confident these students will use the support extended by our business partners and industry experts to build their careers in the promising field of design.”

Participation in Project Design Space has grown year-on-year with more than 4,500 students from 100 UAE schools taking part.

In March 2020, DIDI adopted a digital bootcamp-style format for the extracurricular contest that challenged students to solve real-world problems by merging visual literacy, digital fluency and strategic proficiency.

Nike, LEGO Middle East, Emirates Nature-WWF, RAKBANK and Dubai Festival City Mall, set diverse design challenges ranging from interior design to digital transformation for the young competitors, commended the switch.

Schools from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al-Quwain, Ras al Khaimah and Fujairah participated in the fourth annual Project Design Space, which witnessed entries rise by 26 per cent this year.