Italian Design : Cameroonian Initiatives Encouraged

In a thunderstorm of applause, Project Number 11, a mobile clinic repurposed from abandoned car materials, was crowned the winner of the Italian Design Day (IDD) 2025 competition hosted by the National Advanced School of Public Works (NASPW) in Yaoundé. Designed to serve underprivileged communities, the project stood out for its innovation, sustainability, and impact, embodying the event’s theme: “Inequalities: Design for a Better Living.” The winner, Ange Blanche Mouaha Tchoko, expressed her motivation stating that, “Italian design is an inspiration to me, and I am driven by the force to see that Cameroonian architecture becomes a staple in the world too.”
Organized by the Italian Embassy in Cameroon, the Italian Trade Agency, the National Advanced School of Public Works and the University of Padova, the event blended Cameroon’s rich culture, which the Italian Ambassador, Filippo Scammacca del Murgo, described as “one that must be reinforced as much as possible.” He praised the students’ efforts, adding, “I was impressed with the work put in by the students. It means we were right not just to have a master class this year but to launch the first edition of this competition.”
Out of 62 participants and 37 projects, the second-place winners, a group of two young girls, Claire Manuela Ngono Ayissi and Kamel Marylou Bridget Mvogo, presented, “The Church begins with me,” a plan of housing for rural areas which promotes the values that well-being starts with each individual’s household before extending to the society. The third place went to a group of four, for the pr...