PAKISTAN’S YOCA AND NAJMI BILGRAMI COLLBORATIVE WIN AT WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AWARDS
Receives Gold A’ Design Award for the Gul Ahmed Office design and A’ design Award for Unity Center Table
[Karachi, 2nd July 2018]: Following their win of the Silver A’ Design Award at the A’ International Design Award and Competition last year, architects Sarah Najmi Bilgrami, Zayd Bilgrami and Ahsan Najmi bring home two big awards this year at a prestigious ceremony held in Como, Italy.
The Golden A’ Design Award – Gul Ahmed Office Interior Design – Sarah, Zayd, Ahsan and Team Najmi Bilgrami Collaborative (Pvt) Ltd.
The A’ Design Award – Unity Coffee Table – Sarah, Zayd, Ahsan and Team YOCA Pvt Ltd.
YOCA and the Najmi Bilgrami Collaborative are the only Pakistani brands to win the prestigious Golden A’ Design Award and A Design Awards, deemed the most influential design award in the world.
Indeed, the A’ Design Awards is a premier annual juried design competition that honors the best designers, architects, engineers, design studios, brands and design oriented companies worldwide. The awards highlight the excellent qualifications of best designs, design concepts and design oriented products worldwide in all creative disciplines and industries. Award recipients are selected from thousands of nominated projects from around the world by an international jury panel comprising of prominent scholars, members of the press, creative design professionals and experienced entrepreneurs. This award is indeed a manifestation of YOCA’s quality and perfection in design and the architecture of the Najmi Bilgrami Collaborative which has enabled for two ‘made in Pakistan’ projects to be acknowledged as among some of the most acclaimed brands in the world.
“To receive this recognition from such an innovative and internationally acclaimed awards competition for the second time for us huge; most specially to win the most coveted GOLD award. We are humbled to represent Pakistan at a platform that essentially sets the tone for design excellence worldwide. The inspiration in designing the Interior for Pakistan’s leading and largest textile companies Gul Ahmed, was twofold, to create a design the reflects the rich heritage of a company that has grown over three generations, while in parallel reflecting to all the inhabitants of the space how environmentally conscious the company is by creating an internalized forest and green space. For YOCA’s Unity Coffee Table, the challenge was to create a piece, which would appeal to luxury residential interiors or yacht interiors, yet tell a compelling story of unity and peace, being created by the hands of Pakistani designers and craftsman. A story was to be told, while validating an aesthetic to fit amongst surrounding high design furniture in luxury homes and yachts.” said Sarah Najmi-Bilgrami Zayd Bilgrami, Ahsan Najmi
Established in 2006, YOCA, or Young Collective Artists, is a luxury Home Furnishing brand that surfaced from the synergies between three Architects, Zayd Bilgrami, Ahsan Najmi and Sarah Najmi Bilgrami.
The three founders Zayd Bilgrami, Ahsan Najmi and Sarah Najmi Bilgrami together bring with them a combination of inspirational creativity, seasoned industry exposure and academic design credentials from the coveted Rhode Island School of Design. The three artists represent a second generation of experts, whose predecessors have to their credit the 35-year architectural practice, Najmi Bilgrami Collaborative Ltd (NBCL), where all three team members are also partners. With a firm understanding of architectural and interior design and scales, YOCA takes pride in producing unique pieces as their own with no compromise on aesthetics and design, the core elements for any piece of furniture.
Previously YOCA won the award for their infamous Amoeba Table, Silver A’ Design Award in 2017. The YOCA Showroom is located in Karachi at 14-C Lane 7, Main Khayaban-e-Bukhari Commercial – Phase 6, D.H.A