2017 Student Design Charette Recap

The IIDA Oregon Chapter is proud to announce the winners of the Oregon Chapter Finals of the IIDA Western Region Student Design Charette!

The First Place Team won a $1,400.00 Cash Prize and Advancement to the IIDA Western Region Student Design Charette!

(First Place Winning Team from Left to Right: Brittney Hopp, Hannah Germansky, Jessy Miguel and Mian Mao. Photo by Kaitlin Green)

 

The Second Place Team won a $600.00 Cash Prize

(Second Place Winning Team from Left to Right:. Courtney Smith, Azita Footohi, Sidney Franco and Hannah Martin. Photo by Kaitlin Green)

Event Summary

The Charette took place this past Saturday February 18th at Ankrom Moisan Architects in Portland, OR. Winning team members will represent Oregon at the IIDA Western Region Student Design Charette Regional Finals in Phoenix on April 8th. Winners of the IIDA Western Region Student Design Charette will then be sent to compete at the IIDA International Student Charette during NeoCon in Chicago in June 2017.

Charette Design Problem

Twenty-five students from different grade levels at five Oregon design schools were divided into six teams. Each team was assigned the same project; “Digital Creative” an institute that specializes in creative technology and entrepreneurship. The programs were tailored to the local community, offering courses and degrees for working adults seeking new careers, career advancements and certificates in industries and technologies that were relevant to local business and tech startups. Digital Creative worked to develop a unique identity from its competitors. The program offered a unique opportunity to learn form the best in the industry in a video/virtual teaching format.  The experience was supported with physical space where students could collaborate peer-to-peer and develop lifelong relationships that could be taken with them outside of the classroom.

The location of “Digital Creative” was set in Slabtown, recently dubbed as “Nolo” (North of Lovejoy), an up-and-coming area in Northwest Portland. The building location was near “Trendy-Third Avenue”, a district occupied by restaurants, national chains, and boutiques. Slabtown was labeled a “transition area” by the city with old industrial lofts being converted to housing and office space. This location is an attractive place for tech startups and creatives, making it an ideal location for Digital creative to offer their tech and creative focused educational programs.

The campus was located in a single story building (approximately 8,000 sf) that housed various learning spaces, collaborative spaces and administrative offices. The students were tasked with laying out all core program areas, and at a minimum further developing three key areas which included an entry/reception area, tech lounge, and one virtual instructor learning environment (ie. classroom).  Students were encouraged to design a space that maximized learning opportunities and created meaningful experiences by rethinking the classroom experience for adults. The design needed to promote self-direction learning and collaborative problem solving, as well as support various levels of interaction through formal and informal areas. The IIDA Student Member teams were judged on the function, design, creativity/originality, branding, aesthetics, oral and graphic presentation of their projects.

(Jurors on sofa from Left to Right:. Brittney Hererra, Leah Wheary, and Nita Posada. Photo by Kaitlin Green)

Jurors included Brittney Herrera, IIDA of IA Interior Architects, Leah Wheary, LEED AP of Ankrom Moisan Architects, and Nita Posada, IIDA of SRG Partnership. The program was produced by the IIDA Oregon Chapter’s Student Affairs team, led by VP of Student Affairs, Mia Allen, IIDA of Ankrom Moisan Portland.

Learn more about Design Charettes from other IIDA Oregon blog posts: “What is a Charette?” and “Charette Best Practices”.

For the first time ever, the IIDA Oregon Chapter shared the Juror’s Comments and Award announcements on the Chapter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, so followers could participate remotely.

Finally, thank you to the generous sponsors of the IIDA Oregon Chapter Finals of the IIDA Western Region Student Design Charette!

To learn more about the IIDA Western Region Student Design Charette, visit the Facebook page.