03.09.22

IIDA So Cal Student Design Charette 2022

The IIDA SoCal Chapter Student Design Charette was held on Saturday, February 19 at the PeopleSpace showroom in Irvine. It was the first in person IIDA event of 2022. Student Members of IIDA from 11 schools competed for cash awards and the chance to contend for a top prize in the Regional Design Charette Competition, also to be hosted by the SoCal Chapter, later this Spring. Check out the photos of the event here and watch the video here.

31 students were divided randomly into six teams and challenged to use design thinking in order to re-develop the existing downtown LA Bradbury Building for a client called Field and Supply. They were asked to fulfill a long list of program requirements while honoring the unique historical features of the space.

Participating schools included OTIS, San Diego Mesa College, Woodbury, Interior Designers Institute, Mount San Antonio College, Saddleback College, Fullerton, College, California State University Long Beach, California State University Northridge, Design Institute of San Diego and New School of Architecture and Design.

The teams had 4.5 hours to research, develop a cohesive concept and communicate their design through sketches, inspiration images and material swatches. Time management and the ability to collaborate well with a team were critical to the outcome for each group.

Each group had 5 minutes to present their design concepts to 5 esteemed jurors – Clay Pendergrast, Workplace Design Leader for SmithGroup; Robyn Taylor, Principal, Design Director at Westgroup Designs; Michael Fisher, Workplace Strategist for PeopleSpace; Jack Jilbilian, President of Environmental Contracting Corporation; and Meena Krenek, Design Principal for Perkins & Will and current IIDA So Cal Chapter President.

After much consideration, the judges decided to bring back four teams for additional Q&A to help them determine first and second prize winners. These awards will be presented to our student winners during the IIDA SoCal Calibre Design Awards on May 20, 2021. The first-place team will continue on to compete at the Regional Charette Competition in Los Angeles on April 9 2022.

Winning Team ($10,000 award) – Knots

  • Sarine Mekhsian, Woodbury University
  • Mitzi Arango Rodriguez, Cal State University Long Beach
  • Octavio Madrigal, Mt. San Antonio College
  • Yumina Kim, OTIS College of Art and Design
  • Christian DuBarr, Fullerton College

Second Place Team ($5,000 Award) – Ancien Nouveau 

  • Jean Juan, OTIS College of Art and Design
  • Stephany Martinez, Cal State University Northridge
  • Sasha Daly, Mesa College
  • Katherine Ougarov, Saddleback College
  • Taylor Bonatus, Design Institute of San Diego

Jill Potts and Derek Chen, IIDA SoCal VPs of Student Affairs, thank the students, judges, sponsors and volunteers for making this event a huge success. A special thank you to:

  • Interface and ECC for sponsoring the event
  • Mary Davis and Pallas Textiles for fabric donations
  • volunteers who helped make the day possible – Jade Li, Allison Lim, Katie Parmele and James Arakelian
  • Adam Ferry of PeopleSpace for hosting the event and providing lunch 
  • IIDA So Cal would also like to thank the campus faculty advisors who support their students by encouraging them to participate in IIDA student opportunities
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