WADE ASIA – Asia’s largest platform for women-led developments in Architecture, Art, Design and Engineering successfully concluded its 4th year of celebration on the 11th and 12th of October 2019 at the NSIC Grounds, New Delhi. The platform created by Vertica Dvivedi aim towards knowledge sharing, networking, rewarding and recognizing of work done by women.
WADE ASIA 2019 in Numbers:
WADE ASIA witnessed massive turnout and scaled up several times this year.
– Turnout rose from 1200 to 7000+ visitors
– 1500+ project entries submitted by women
– 246 shortlists from all over India
– 55 winners among women in design
– 3 Top Nominated WADE Award winners
– Area grew from 18000 to 65000 sqft
– 28 Hours of Power Packed Conference
– 170+ Speakers, Jury & Special Guests
Founder Director and Chief Curator of WADE ASIA, Vertica Dvivedi commented, “My measurement of success for WADE ASIA and WADE FOUNDATION is not by the number of visitors, exhibitors, area or any world record, but by the number of people we could positively impact, the causes we could positively contribute and the changes we could possibly bring in the society, mindset and lives of people.”
WADE ASIA 2019 – key highlights:
• World Record was created on 12 October 2019 (8 to 9 AM) with the largest number of women (500+) standing together to form W shape on NSIC ground, New Delhi for promoting water awareness. ASIA BOOK OF RECORDS judged the process and presented Certificate and Medal. More info in www.wadefoundation.in
• WADE Top Awards: Top WADE ASIA Awards were presented to 3 women from the fields of Water, Sustainable Architecture and Engineering respectively, Amla Ruia from Mumbai, Sheila Sri Prakash from Chennai and Sangeeta Wij from New Delhi
• WADE Theme: Women – Water – Workmanship
• WADE Keynotes: Legendary architect Shirish Beri presented on “Towards an Architecture of Goodness” while Rajeev Talwar, Chairperson, NAREDCO, talked about current scenario of India’s Real Estate
• WADE Design Galore: 10 designers from all over India collaborated for Design Galore
• WADE Workshops: Over 5 workshops were held viz. Red Oxide Flooring, Universal Accessibility for the disabled by Ar Kavita Murugkar, Mid-career alternate career options for women on a break Ar Gita Balakrishnan, Brand communication, Students workshop by Indian Institute of Architects (women committee) and more.
Guest of Honour, Rajeev Talwar, Chairperson, National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) and CEO, DLF Ltd. mentioned WADE ASIA in his special address: “It is a great privilege for me to be here at WADE ASIA in its 4th year. I think it’s a great breakthrough. If you can sustain a show for 4 years with women Architects, Designers, Artists and Engineers, to recognise the contribution of women, I am quite sanguine WADE ASIA is set to increase geometrically and become more significant in skill development among women.”
A platform respected not only for its intent but also immensely well-curated content, WADE ASIA’s theme this year was – WOMEN, WATER, WORKMANSHIP. ZEE BUSINESS was the Television partner of WADE ASIA 2019.
The final Jury process for the WADE Awards 2019 was held on the first day with 1500+ submission brought down to over 246 shortlisted entries from across India. 50 entries were selected as the final winners. The highest WADE Award, also called the ‘Blue WADE’ was awarded for Lifetime Achievement to Amla Ruia, Founder Aakar Charitable Trust, also known as ‘Water Mother of India’ for her Special Contribution as a Water Warrior. She and her people have positively impacted 644000 people in 518 villages by creating 368 check dams in India.
The WADE Sustainability Champion of the Year award was awarded to Sheila Sri Prakash for her outstanding contribution towards green and sustainable architecture and design practices. She is the founder of Shilpa Architects, Chennai, and is the first woman in India to have started and operated her own architectural practice. The WADE Engineer of the Year winner was Sangeeta Wij, MD, Prime SD Engineering Consultants and Former Director (Technical) Aecom India Pvt Ltd. Apart from this, over 55 Women across India were awarded in categories such as YoungWADe, Best Use of Colour in Architecture and Interior Design, Residential, Commercial, Retail, Public Building, Healthcare, Educational and more.
While women were the main focus with curated discussions such as Design Journeys of Successful Women Architects and Designs, MasterClass with Mentors with some of the Top women leaders in the industry, Women ChangeMakers and Innovators and more, one of the aims of WADE ASIA is working towards a larger cause and making a difference. The initiative by WADE FOUNDATION – WOMEN WATER WARRIORS was a perfect example of merging both Women and Water for a great cause.
WADE FOUNDATION successfully attempted and created the ASIA BOOK OF WORLD RECORD for the largest gathering of Women forming a Human ‘W’. The significance of the letter ‘W’ is that it stands for Women Water Warriors with the pledge to stand for water awareness, literacy, conservation, preservation and restoration. Over 500+ women gathered at 8 AM on Saturday, 12th Oct at the NSIC Grounds to create this new record. An extremely significant initiative and a proud moment!
Water was also one of the key themes for presentation. Chitra Vishwanath presented on ‘Architecture of Water & Waste’ while Mittal Patel from VSSM Gujarat, known for reviving over 87 lakes in Gujarat shared her work. Some of the delegates also included prominent people like Swamy Anand Swaroop from Ganga Sewa Mission who applauded the efforts of WADE ASIA’s team.
Workmanship being another key theme of WADE ASIA was expressed beautifully through several displays of product designs by young designers in specially curated stalls. Neelam Manjunath, a pioneer of Bamboo work in India spoke about Crafting Buildings. One of the highlighting talks was the keynote by architect Shirish Beri on the topic ‘Towards an Architecture of Goodness’. The Panel Discussion on ‘Managing a Design Practice’ with several top architects and designers was a superb knowledge-based session for the audience.
Madhurima Chowdhury, Associate Director and Co-Curator of WADE ASIA looked upbeat about women’s participation, expressed, “While we are scaling up, we did not want to dilute the core objective of WADE ASIA being a women oriented event. I am glad participation of Women were close to 63% at WADE. It is interesting to note, though ‘Women Water Warriors’ was a side event of WADE ASIA, more than 500 women participated even in that initiative to create the world record adjudicated by the ASIA Book of Records. There is room for making the Jury process more organised in WADE and we will be striving toward that in 2020. I thank all for the love you have showered on WADE ASIA and the faith on us.” More at www.wadeasia.com
