Interior design schools often encourage students to participate in interior design competitions. The competitions are high-pressure contests that can show students just what it’s like to try to get a rush job done on-time and within budget out in the real world of design.
Competitions can also help pay for interior design school tuition, as the students at one college found out this month. Cape Fear Community College students recently participated in this type of competition, where the stakes and prizes were high.
The students, enrolled in CFCC’s two-year interior design program, saw their projects win first, second and third place in the 2012 Otto Zenke Student Design Competition. More than 90 students from two- and four-year colleges in North and South Carolina participated.
First place winner was Justin Nixon who won $1000 for himself and $1000 for the college. Jennifer Corson was second place winner and the recipient of $750, and Kately Thrailkill won $500 as third place winner.
The competition is an annual event sponsored by the Carolinas Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). CFCC students competed against students from such institutions as the Art Institute of Charleston, Meredith College and Winthrop University.
The charge to students was to design an adaptive reuse of a fictional building in Raleigh to house at-risk youth. An eight-page document outlined the features and furnishings that had to be incorporated into the facility, as well as the ADA and other code requirements that had to be met.
“There were a lot of technical details that provided an opportunity for the students to show their skills in creating an environment that promotes the life, safety and welfare of the occupants,” said Patricia Battershill, lead instructor of CFCC’s interior design program. “It goes far beyond the decorative aspect of the design, and it needed to be eco-friendly, welcoming, comforting and healing.”
Read the whole story from the Greater Wilmington Business Journal.
More on Interior Design Schools and Competitions:
VSU Places Third In National Interior Design Competition
Local Interior Designer Competes on Nationally Televised ‘Design Wars’
