Design students interpret campus-community connections

SPOKANE, Wash. – WSU Spokane design students are “taking back the street” and chalking up concepts of sidewalk connections between the Riverpoint Campus and surrounding community for the Interdisciplinary Design Institute’s annual Fall Design Charrette Aug. 24-26.

  
The 48-hour intensive competition unites graduate and undergraduate students in architecture and interior design into teams across disciplines. Each team will take its connection ideas and form a creative expression of public art on the sidewalk in chalk, three dimensional sculptures or other forms of creative expression.

 

The concepts will be on display for public vote noon-2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, on the sidewalk on the north side of Spokane Falls Boulevard near the Phase I Classroom Building.

In preparation for the charrette, students read “Second Generation Traffic Calming” by David Engwicht. Some of their other activities will include a Spokane public art exploration and presentations by Karen Mobley from the Spokane Public Art Commission and Heleen Dewey, Kitty Klitzke and Kat Hall from Spokane Complete Streets.

 

The directed activities, speakers and reading provide teams with philosophical and perceptual bases for their discussions and final charrette entries.

 

“Students are engaged in the design project, and we are looking forward to seeing their creative interpretations of the campus-community connection,” said Dana Vaux, chairperson for the Design Charette Committee.

 

Chalkboard renderings of each concept and photos of the final installation will be on display in the gallery in the Phase I Classroom Building at 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd. until Sept. 12.

 

The Interdisciplinary Design Institute at WSU Spokane advances knowledge to enhance the quality of people’s lives in the built and natural environment through interdisciplinary instruction, research and community service. Research and design focus in particular on people and place, design history and community service learning, with sustainable design being the theme throughout the curriculum.

 

Faculty and students from all design disciplines are brought together for a one-of-a-kind opportunity in higher learning and discovery. Internationally renowned faculty and students from architecture, interior design and landscape architecture work collaboratively to improve people’s lives through the advancement of design.

 

This distinctive interdisciplinary experience, combined with state-of-the-art facilities located near downtown Spokane, creates an outstanding professional academic and research environment.

 

WSU Spokane is the urban campus of Washington State University, a land-grant research university founded in 1890. The campus features advanced studies and research in health sciences and health professions, the design disciplines, education, social and policy sciences and science and technology.

 

WSU Spokane is leading development of the Riverpoint Campus as a comprehensive, research-intensive academic health science center. A study by national experts conducted in 2010 projects that research and education at the campus, area healthcare services and associated business/industry spin-offs will drive the regional economy with a $2.1 billion annual impact at full build-out.

 

Campus programs include professional and graduate studies and research in medicine, pharmacy, nursing, health administration, nutrition and exercise physiology, and other health professions and sciences.

 

WSU is one of 95 public and private research universities with very high research activity, according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifications. In addition, U.S. News & World Report ranks WSU as one of the top public research universities in the nation.

 

Websites:
Interdisciplinary Design Institute:  www.idi.spokane.wsu.edu

WSU Spokane:  www.spokane.wsu.edu
Past news release on Interdisciplinary Design:  www.news.spokane.wsu.edu

 

 

Date	Task
Thursday, August 25	9:00am-12:00pm Teams turn in programmatic goals and concept Once approved, teams receive parcels (first team there is assigned parcel 1, team 2:  parcel 2, etc.) Teams must meet with adjacent parcel neighbors (team 2 meets with team 1 and 3 )–Will sidewalk art or 3D sculptures (or other creative expressions) stand alone or relate to adjacent parcels?? Teams refine concept 1:00pm-5:30pm Teams illustrate concept on chalkboard panel (gallery if raining- outdoors if sunny) Start building 3D sculpture, art piece, practice interpretive dance, etc.
Friday, August 26	9:00am-11:00pm Teams should finish outfitting parcel, start and complete sidewalk art by 11am. Take picture of final installation and print photo to place on chalkboard panel 12:00pm Campus community walks around art and votes on top (5) art installations

 

 

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Source: 
Dana Vaux, IDI Charette Committee, 509-358-7920, devaux@palouse.net