De Montfort University Leicester (DMU)’s landmark Vijay Patel Building, home to all art and design courses, was chosen to host an exclusive student design competition this weekend.
Students from left to right: Sophie Darmanin, Rovan El-Daya, Shivani Patel, Hoi-Kei Un, Dayna Reid and Patchara Lotang
Run by the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID), this was the first time the competition was hosted outside of London, giving DMU’s School of Design the chance to showcase its striking new work spaces and cutting-edge facilities.
It also gave six final-year Interior Design students from DMU - Sophie Darmanin, Shivani Patel, Hoi-Kei Un, Patchara Lotang, Dayna Reid and Rovan El-Daya - an exciting opportunity to compete against teams from Glasgow Caledonian University, the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Lincoln.
The four university teams were given a top secret brief on the day, to redesign the space they were competing in as temporary accommodation for 60 people, to help address the global refugee crisis.
Students had to think about where people would sleep, eat, study and spend leisure time, and cater for children, adults of all ages, families, couples and single people.
They had just six hours to develop a proposal, before presenting their designs to a judging panel led by BIID President Susie Rumbold and made up of experts in the field who have first-hand experience of living in a refugee camp.
To make matters more challenging the competition was completely CAD-free, forcing students to hand-draw all sketches, drawings and models.
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Hoi-Kei Un, who has just started her final year after a one-year work placement at London-based luxury interior designers Callender Howorth, said: “It felt weird doing everything on paper, but we quickly learned to play to each other’s different strengths in the group.
“We were nervous at the start, but our mentor was great and she really helped us when it came to picking eco-friendly materials and making difficult decisions.”
Although the University of Hertfordshire’s team was crowned the winner, all students had the chance to flex their creativity and develop key problem-solving and team-working skills.
Hoi-Kei continued: “Even though we didn’t win, we were highly praised by the judges which boosted our confidence.
“It was a really positive experience and highlighted our many strengths as a group, like our confident presentation skills, and as a university, in terms of our impressive facilities.”
Stuart Wright, a Senior Lecturer in Interior Design at DMU, said: “To have a professional body like the BIID take a real interest in supporting university students in this way is fantastic.
“Not only did students get to share valuable knowledge and skills with each other on the day, each team also benefited from mentoring from a practising designer.”
Hayley McLennan, Learning and Events Executive at BIID, thanked DMU saying: “We were delighted that after participating in last year’s BIID Student Design Challenge at Google Campus in London, DMU generously offered to host this year’s competition in their impressive new art and design facility.
The judging panel consisted of:
- Colleen Molloy, the National Development Officer at City of Sanctuary, a national organisation working to build relationships between asylum seekers and local communities
- Mark Salama, an asylum seeker and architect who ran a firm in Egypt
- Malka Al Haddad Malka, an asylum seeker, artist, academic, feminist and human rights activist from Iraq
Posted on Wednesday 23 November 2016