For the second year in a row, University of Wyoming Design, Merchandising, and Textiles students were recognized for their quality interior design work in The Interior Design Educator Council (IDEC) Student Design Competition. This year, senior Corah Miller (Jackson, WY), senior Britt Bardman (Bondurant, WY), and junior Abby Metzger (Colorado Springs, CO) were awarded an Honorable Mention for, “The Harbor”, a sanctuary that, “provides dedicated space for neurodiverse students to dock during turbulent mental weather”.
Their design was ranked in the top four in a field of 101 international submissions. Imagined as a hub for mental health, the building features a double curved façade that would allow plenty of healing, natural light into a community atrium and small-scale collaboration space. Deeper within the space, the team conceptualized privacy pods for bright light therapy sessions to help combat seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The competition invites interior design students from universities around the world to solve a prescribed design problem, which typically aims to meet the needs of an underserved or marginalized population.
One of the team members, Abby Metzger, remarked that, “Participating in the IDEC design competition with my team was an immensely rewarding experience. Exploring the prompt to create a healing space for neurodivergent individuals not only ignited our creativity but also sparked a profound sense of purpose.”
Design competitions are a “pedagogical powerhouse” in Senior Lecturer Treva Sprout Ahrenholtz’s interior design courses. Every fall, IDEC introduces a new competition that challenges students to harness the powers of empathy, research, space planning, and creativity to design spaces that allow occupants to thrive. Sprout Ahrenholtz notes that, “competitions like IDEC’s highlight and advance the best of what interior design has to offer society. Student success and recognition in these competitions over the last few years only underscores what we have known all along—our students are outstanding.”
Last year, two University of Wyoming students, Elyse Rutherford and Corah Miller, were awarded 2nd place in the IDEC Student Competition. Their design, “Fallout”, highlighted the imagined journey of a nuclear refugee and how they could design a shelter out of a limited number of objects in the high plains of Mongolia. Students had one week to research, design, and present a feasible idea that would suitably and safely shelter the occupants. Miller is a back-to-back awardee, an extraordinary accomplishment. The graduating senior remarks, “I am very honored for my design work to be awarded by IDEC two years in a row. So much work and thought went into both Fallout and The Harbor, and I could not have done it without my brilliant project partners. I am also immensely proud to have the University of Wyoming recognized through our work. I appreciated the IDEC Student Design Competitions for creating a collaborative environment, where I could work with peers to research and develop human centered design solutions.”
Both award winning designs can be viewed here: The Harbor and Fallout.
