IFC rewards winners of EDGE Architecture Students Competition

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug 29, GNA – The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in collaboration with the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) has awarded winners of its maiden architectural competition for university students.

The EDGE software, which is an application for designing green buildings, saw 18 students from the Central University College design eco-friendly buildings for construction as part of the task to win the ultimate price of a trip to South Africa.

According to the organisers, 20 students from Central University were selected to take part in the Competition, however, 18 attended the edge training, after which the competition was launched on July 18 this year.

This gave students exactly four weeks to work on the project.

Mr David Gifat Ampiaw emerged as the winner with 63 points, bagging a trip to the Green Building Convention in Cape Town, a six-month mentorship with Orthner Orthner and Associates (OOA) architectural firm and a voucher from the Labadi Beach Hotel.

The second and third prize winners were Olufemi Abodrurin (48 points) and Cheryl Omani-Baah (47points), both also winning a trip to Cape Town upon a review from the IFS.

All participants’ in the competition were awarded with certificates.

On August 16, jurors received 17 submissions and began assessing them.

Projects were judged by the following criteria; form, intent, function, resource effectiveness, which saw clear and interesting ideas.

Mr Dennis Quansah, Green Building Lead for IFC said “green buildings are not only a challenge that we must overcome together, but because IFC believes that we have the solutions to policy makers and that together we can create an investment opportunity for developers, financial institutions.”

“Green buildings are meaningful to Ghanaians; they use less energy, use less precious water and protect owners and residents from high utility bills. They create a more responsible brand for developers and redefine customer relationship and they also retain their value over time.”

He said: “IFC EDGE offers a faster, easier and more affordable way to building a brand green in more than 140 countries including Ghana. EDGE includes a software that helps to identify the most practical way of building green and these students used this software to design their projects.”

Mr Matthias Feldmann, Charges de Affairs Embassy of Switzerland of Ghana, Togo and Benin who represented the Country Manager for SECO said: “What we need is to invest in people, and this competition is a way of investing in people.”

GNA

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