Student Charette: Design Revolution

During NeoCon, interior design students from across the country gather for a design Charette, a collaborative session where designers tackle a design problem and present their solutions. The IIDA Student Design Charette, sponsored by MillerKnoll, Behr, Chicago Architecture Center, and Wallcoverings Association with guidance from the Marquardt Group, provided students with materials and resources to create a design board, and five minutes to present their design solutions

This year's design problem challenged students to look at IIDA Headquarters and ask, “If you were never asked to come into this office but could do so on your own accord, what would you want this space to be?” Groups were asked to consider the concepts of community restoration, immersive team time, individual focus & reflection, and hybrid work solutions. Read the 2022 Student Charette Design problem here.

Judges Joseph White, director of design strategy at MillerKnoll, Gretchen Miller, interior designer at Bailey Edward, and Erika Woelfel, vice president, color and creative services at Behr assessed projects offering the groups insights on their solutions. Projects were judged on consideration of creativity, design solution, presentation, problem-solving, story, and design concept.

The winning team (right), Laisha Diaz of Savannah College of Art and Design, Madison Feltz of Maryville University, Kalub Strom of Michigan State University, and Alice Tshibanda of Kirkwood Community College created a dynamic design titled “Design Revolution.” The team interviewed on-site IIDA staff, to gain a better idea of what needs end users would have in the space, and according to judge Gretchen Miller designed a solution with “A nice mix of different types of functions that serves everyone’s needs for people to be together but also have their own space.” Joseph White added, “This is a very sophisticated design, one that is ready to hand off to the client.”