11.11.14

Member Interview with Rodica Kohn

Rodica Kohn is an accomplished design professional, and she is passionate about teaching design to students. She spends some of her day working as the Faculty Representative to the IIDA Student Center at CSUN. Mark your calendar for the IIDA event she is hosting at CSUN on November 21, starting at 2:00pm. You won’t want to miss a moment of the panel discussion titled “Interior Design: Academia and the Profession in the 21st Century” featuring presentations by Gensler, HOK, Wolcott and by Woodbury University, UCLA Extension, CSULB and CSUN spokespeople.

Rodica explained the motivation behind this program as, “Opening a dialogue between the academia and the profession, and understanding what the profession needs so that we can more effectively prepare our students for the profession is a key factor. IIDA is playing an important role in connecting the students with seasoned designers who can mentor them. In a profession such as interior design, mentorship is extremely critical”.

I asked Rodica what she did to prepare for a teaching career in Interior Design. She explained, “Teaching in an Interior Design program happened more by accident than by ‘design’. My original intent was to become a sculptor, but concerned with art for art sake, I thought I should study a design that has a function attached to the end product. I studied design at Central School of Art & Design (today it is Central St. Martin) in London and at UCLA, graduated in 1985 with a MFA in Design and in 1994 with a Master’s in Architecture. I ended up studying architecture because it is, for me, a large sculptural and functional object. I taught architecture as a teaching associate at UCLA, USC, CSUP and now I teach in the Interior Design program at CSUN”.

Susan Steinlauf
www.uiinteriors.com