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A class project for second and third year interior design students was parlayed into a gold and bronze medal at the Eastern Region Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) 2008 Student Competition.
Tammy Bourke, Megan Whittal and Jeff Wortley, all second year students, took the Gold medal in the competition which encompassed students studying at post secondary institutions in the Eastern U.S., Quebec and Ontario. A second team of third year students, Cassandra Kotva and Magda Trzos, took the Bronze medal.
“As second year students we thought we might be at a disadvantage as we had not covered some of the content in the class at that point,” says Megan Whittal. “When we found out we won we were surprised but very excited. This is great profile for the College and the Interior Design program.”
According to the announcement letter sent by the competition Chair, Ellen Fisher of the New York School of Interior Design, “the judges thought that the winning submission was extremely thoughtful, creative, and well-researched.”
Brian Hucker, Coordinator of the program is thrilled that his students took two of the three top honours. “Our students are very strong critical thinkers and they used their creativity to enhance their projects and provide some very unique solutions. It was a very rigorous competition with just one week to complete everything.”
The teams had to choose between designing a one bedroom home that offered complete accessibility, or a two bedroom home. All floor plans were one story 1,200 sq. ft. homes modeled after a pre-fab housing concept. The object was to design the space for people who do not have much furniture, take advantage of sustainable, environmentally friendly products and concepts, take advantage of solar orientation and design for reduced waste output.
The Gold Medal team's submission entitled “Flex House” was based on a one-bedroom, totally accessible concept. “While we went with universal design concepts for accessibility including wide doors and aisles, pocket doors and more, we didn't want it to feel like it was designed solely for wheelchair access,” says Bourke. “When we were done we all agreed we would love to live in the space.”
The gold medal winners each played to their strengths throughout the week they worked together. “Tammy was strong in sketching and computer 3D modeling, while Megan did the hand renderings and I did the Auto Cad design,” says Wortley. “
The Bronze Medal team chose to design the two bedroom concept and used land-based local products where ever possible, and tried to incorporate as much natural lighting and sustainable products as possible. “We had the ability to specify the site lines of the home and chose to position it with a southern exposure maximizing natural light,” says Kotva. “We learned a tremendous amount about other environmentally friendly products such as double flush toilets and gray water recycling systems.”
The competition's mandate was to “give back to society by extending a greater awareness of societies' need to care for those who cannot find affordable housing as part of a world community and engage future interior designers in how we may be a position part of the equation.”
The Gold medal winners submission will now be sent to the IDEC International Conference for judging in Montreal March 4 – 9th.
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