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Sri Lankan student wins prestigious design awards in Australia
Stacks of fun for kids
By Duminda Ariyasinghe

Hours of fun with popular kids activities such as Lego and Tic-Tac-Toe, plus seating for two.

A Sri Lankan teenager in Sydney is carving a niche for herself as an industrial designer. Shalini Seneviratne, 18, has become the first person to win two of the most prestigious industrial design awards for emerging talent in New South Wales, Australia.

Shalini won the two awards - the Powerhouse Museum DesignTECH Award and the Alan Broady Memorial Award of the University of Sydney - for her innovative multifunctional play centre, 'Stacks of Fun'. The design combines a layered play centre for younger children (comprising games such as Tic-Tac-Toe and Lego) with stacks of drawers to make tidying up easy after play.

In their citations, the judges of both awards noted not only the functional benefits of the play centre, but also the thought process that went into the design. The project which started as a design work for her Year 12 Design and Technology course had its genesis in the playing habits of kids.

"I noticed that there weren't any incentives for kids to pack up after playtime," Shalini said. "Parents may offer extra TV time in exchange for a tidy room, but there aren't any incentives for habit-forming, independent behaviour."

The combination of the stackable layers with the decorative outer design creates an egg shaped puzzle; thus kids are encouraged to pack up after playtime by restoring the unit into its original egg shape. There is an integrated storage drawer for all the games components, as well as a main chair and an extra seat.

For the play centre's outer design, Shalini reached out to Australia's indigenous culture. The red, black and yellow decoration is a symbolic representation of the indigenous Australian flag to remind kids of Australia's rich native heritage.

The award winning play centre was displayed along with 32 of the nominees at the DesignTECH Exhibit of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. In his introduction, the senior curator of the museum, Rob Renew noted that the DesignTECH exhibit has helped launch the careers of many talented Australian designers.
As part of the award, Shalini was granted an internship at a leading industrial design consultancy firm in Sydney. Shalini who graduated from the North Sydney Girls’ High School is currently a first year student in the Bachelor of Industrial Design programme at the University of New South Wales.

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