Last week I headed to the IDSWest show to judge this year’s IDIBC Student Interior Design Charrette. I was pretty excited to be a judge at this event where Interior Design students from across the province compete to solve a surprise design challenge. This year they were asked to design a laneway house for a specific (but fictitious) client and received the design criteria the night before the show. There were four teams of six students, all from different levels of their programs, working in mixed teams.
Ok, group work is already challenging, now they’re with people they don’t know and they have to present their designs on the floor of this huge design show!?! Kudos to all of the students who took part – that took guts and us judges really put them through their paces too. Here’s a look at the event:
Here are the students hard at work with direction from their mentors Robert Bailey and Monte Paulsen:
As their 6 hour time limit came to an end, things started getting a little more chaotic. I was having flashbacks of all those late nights back in my design-school days. *shudder*
Meanwhile, myself and the other judges; Jake Fry of Smallworks; Erica Letchford of ReCollective; and Geralynne Mitchke of Geralynne Mitchke Designs, were making our preparations (mainly determining who would be the Simon Cowell of the group).
Then it was time for the presentations:
Fact: a clipboard and a hand on the chin always lends an air of authority. That was my tactic, clearly. Here is team #3 (and the Charrette winners!) presenting their design. They did a great job, very well thought out and realistic in their approach.
Here I am with the rest of the judging panel as well as Annika Reinhardt from BC Hydro Power Smart, the event sponsor.
I love taking part in these types of events, especially when Interior Design students are involved. I know how hard they work (anyone who presumes that design school is a piece of cake is nuts!) and how eager I was to know what the ‘real design world’ was like when I was a student, so it’s important to me to be available to new-comers. I certainly don’t know it all but what I do know, I’m always wiling to share.
Congrats to all the students who took part in the Charrette!
*all photos courtesy of the Interior Designer’s Institute of BC