PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Oct 11: Notions of India, an international design competition organised by Tata Structura to mark this year’s Gandhi Jayanti witnessed an impressive participation with “Billion Impressions” emerging as the winning design.
The winners were announced on Monday.
“Billion Impressions” by Namdev Talluru and J K Jayakanth was adjudged the winning design.
“The Knot” by Midori Architects and “National Unity Pavilion” by Collaborative Architecture took the honours for second and third place.
Tata Steel announced that the winning design will be erected and installed in Ranchi.
Sumit Kumar Sharma from School of Planning and Architecture was adjudged the winner in the Students’ category for his design, “The Spirit”.
On the achievement, T V Narendran, CEO and managing director, Tata Steel, said: “Steel is a very important material for the future. Designers conceptualize beauty and Tata Steel, as a steel maker, provides the functionality to deliver that beauty. Tata Structura is one such critical offering, which helps showcase the beauty of steel. Notions of India is our endeavour to encourage the most creative and talented engineers and architects to bring to life innovative designs enabled by steel. I congratulate the winners and all the participants of the design competition. I would also like to thank the jury members for being a part of this journey and enabling a very healthy discussion and selection.”
Rajeev Sethi, chairman and founder trustee – The Asian Heritage Foundation and chairperson of the Notions of India jury, said: “I see this competition as a very reliable promise of implementation. Hundreds of samples of context-rich ideas in the competition were submitted but only a few were selected after the rigorous examination by the jury panel. I would like to congratulate all the winners and participants who participated in this novel endeavour of Notions of India. The way ahead remains full of possibilities. Replete with potential, the excitement of collaboration between Corporate India and Creative India remains huge.”
Earlier this year, the competition was launched by Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Trusts and Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons, and N. Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons.
Spanning five months, the competition witnessed over 5,200 registrations with participants from 13 countries.
As part of the competition’s evaluation process, a total of 12 leading designs were shortlisted and declared as the finalists on August 15 this year.
This thrilling and enriching concept is an endeavour of Tata Steel to encourage architects and designers to be bolder, experimental, and innovative, and create remarkable iconic steel structures that epitomise the essence of a new India.
