Caesarstone Student Designer Competition – Judging Day

For 14 years, Caesarstone has been at the forefront of bringing SA’s young design talent into the spotlight with the SDC. The 2022 brief, ‘From Ashes We Rise’, was created by Mokena Makeka, a multi-award-winning architect and design strategist, sought-after speaker and thought leader, as well as the founder of DESIGNWORKS – a revolutionary architecture practice in the built environment.

This year’s brief allowed the students to re-imagine the interiors and architecture of the new National Assembly in South Africa’s Houses of Parliament Building. In January 2022, fires tore through the parliamentary complex and The National Assembly Chamber was severely damaged – and so we tasked our students with the instruction to embrace bold design to reimagine a new National Assembly. Just like Cape Fynbos shows that with fire comes immense rebirth and new growth – so our country’s democracy can be further developed in a space that promotes growth and collaboration.

Judging Day

This year’s SDC Judging Day was held on 27 September at Embassy Hill – The Forum in Cape Town where an illustrious judging panel came together to anonymously judge this year’s high-quality entries from design institutions and universities from around the country. The judges are Stefan Antoni, Dorothy van’t Riet, Juliet Kavishe, Jonathan Anstey, and Michele Rhoda.

The top 9 were decided upon and announced – and Caesarstone is excited to host the much-anticipated awards ceremony at the beginning of November. This will be attended by industry heavyweights and is designed to highlight these talented student designers and their lecturers. The final set of entries showcased in the 14th annual awards once again highlights the amazing talent of the student designers who will light the way in South African design.

Winning Entry

The winner and their lecturer will be sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to an international design fare of their choice, courtesy of Caesarstone worth R100 000. The runner-up will receive R15 000, while the second runner up will receive R5 000. There’s also an additional award that will be presented on the night – and that’s the ‘Best Presentation Award’, which comes with a R7 500 prize.

“Once again, we want to thank each and every student, lecturer, and institution who understands the importance of such a competition and pushes their students to achieve greatness in design – our industry’s future is in safe hands. We eagerly await the announcement of the top 3 in November, and then our sights are set on the 2023 brief!”