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When the Interior Architecture Advisory Group began our outreach
to local component committees, we discovered a noteworthy
scholarship program that captured our imagination. This is a
16-year-old Los Angeles story; a joint effort between the
professional, academic and product communities that has resulted in
a robust annual student competition whose goals reach beyond
benevolence. The program has evolved as a unifying purpose for the
committee and a force that encourages the committee to continue to
thrive.
The 1:2 Student Design Charrette is a highly anticipated
event on the spring calendar of Los Angeles area architecture and
design schools that offer programs in interior architecture,
environmental design and architecture. The long-running program has
progressed to become a one-day interior architecture scholarship
competition with a $23,000 purse shared amongst the top three tier
teams and the three finalists.
Recently I spoke with Walt Cousineau, long time co-chair of the
Interior Architecture Committee, and Dwight Bond and Edelweiss
Legaspi, co-chairs of the 1:2 Student Design Charrette
Competition Committee, as well as Richard Logan, past chair of the
Interior Architecture Advisory Group, who served as a juror for the
1:2 Student Design Charrette in March. The following outlines their
program.
Planning begins six months prior to the competition date.
Invitation letters are sent to architecture and design schools in
the Los Angeles Basin and Orange County. A team of two students is
chosen by each participating school to apply.
Committee planning meetings escalate from monthly to biweekly as
task groups boost their stamina to:
• Develop and solicit host location.
• Arrange an architectural tour for students during the
closed-door jury process
• Create the challenge program to be revealed on the day of
the charrette
• Make final selections from the list of applicant
schools
• Solicit a panel of jurors
• Generate a unifying graphic design for myriad communication
materials
• Drive public relations efforts
• Maintain school contacts
• Solicit volunteers from area offices to serve as
mentors
• Arrange catering and plan logistics
• Pump up the effort to solicit sponsorship
Six year veteran 1:2 Student Design Charrette Competition
Committee co-chair Dwight Bond fondly reminisced about the great
fun they had inventing the charrette program brief. 30 initial
ideas from within the committee were eventually edited down to
five, and then the final program was created over many lively
gatherings.
On charrette day, the 12 pairs of students arrived at the host
location sans computer but armed with drawing and modeling
materials. After the program was announced, the teams worked six
hours while volunteer mentors advised on time management or design
development. A one-and-a-half hour preliminary jury process ensued
to select the six finalist teams. Meanwhile, teachers, fellow
students, family, the architecture community, sponsors, and
committee members gathered and socialized. Six finalist teams were
given half an hour to prepare for five-minute presentations to the
gathered audience. The jury deliberated and announced the winners
and the evening culminated in a festive celebration.
The AIA Interior Architecture Advisory Group’s past chair
Richard Logan served as a 2008 jury member: he was impressed that
the program has multiple benefits, including community building and
showcasing the students’ skills in concept development,
effective presentation and productive collaborations. Taken as a
whole, he was most impressed by the thoughtful and assured verbal
presentations. ‘The jury was blown away’ by the
presentation of the winning team, who crafted personal accounts of
two trauma victims in order to relay how their mobile emergency
relief center design would be experienced. This year’s top
team hails from a community college from an underserved area,
proving that ‘great talent can come from anywhere.’
Photo: First-place winner model
In the next few months, the Interior Architecture Advisory Group
and the AIA Knowledge Communities staff will launch an online
toolkit that will contain a description of the competition planning
process, as well as a collection of templates and planning tools
modeled after the Los Angeles Interior Architecture
Committee’s program. We are grateful for the generosity of the
Los Angeles 1:2 Student Design Charrette Competition
Committee in sharing their experiences and tools with our
community. It is our hope that members may be able to use the
toolkit to begin similar programs in their areas and in the process
find the network to form your interior architecture
communities.
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