WSU Interior Design Student Wins International Award

SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington State University Spokane interior design graduate student Kate Hauge received the grand prize of $3,500 in the 2004 International Interior Design Association Sustainable Design Student Competition. 

Each year the IIDA sponsors the Sustainable Design Student Competition, open to interior design students from around the world. This year there were 40 entries.

During her undergraduate studies at WSU Spokane, Hauge created a sustainable office design project in an advanced planning and design class taught by faculty member Judy Theodorson and graduate assistant Ruta Patil. Designs were judged for innovative character of the overall design, responsible use of materials, practical application, visual comfort and sustainable material application, following principles of environmentally responsible design.

Entering the competition was a last-minute decision that paid off for Hauge.

“I actually found out about the competition a few days before it was due in Chicago,” she said. “ I sent it out Airborn Express thinking there was no way I was going to win, and forgot about it for the next two months.  When I received a call at the end of May, I was completely shocked to hear I had won.”

Hauge’s other awards include second place in the Institute of Store Planners National Student Design Competition; honorable mention in the IIDA Washington State Chapter Student Competition; and second place in the Herman Miller Design Lab WSU competition, which she won with the same project she entered in the IIDA Sustainable Student Design Competition.

Hauge will graduate in May 2005 with a master’s degree in interior design, having completed her bachelor’s degree at WSU in 2004. She completed a summer internship in Seattle with NBBJ, a large international architecture firm, and has a job waiting for her in Chicago with RGLA Inc.

Sustainable office design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment.  The goal of sustainable office design is to create a healthy and productive working environment while reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources and minimizing waste.  Hauge utilized Herman Miller Systems in her design to create open working spaces that allow people to be more productive.

The interior design program at WSU is the only undergraduate program in Washington accredited by the Foundation for Interior Design Education Research. It was named one of the top ten programs in the nation in 1997 by the International Interior Design Association.

WSU offers what is believed to be the nation’s only articulated bachelor’s/master’s degree program in interior design, allowing students to complete both degrees in five years with an intensive course of study. Interior design students begin their studies at the Pullman campus, and complete the program in Spokane at the Interdisciplinary Design Institute.

The institute advances knowledge to enhance the quality of people’s lives in the built and natural environment through interdisciplinary instruction, research and community service in design and construction. Students in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, construction management and design-build management study at the institute. Faculty and students at the design institute regularly win state, national and international design competitions for their work.

Related Web sites:
Interdisciplinary Design Institute: www.idi.spokane.wsu.edu
Department of Interior Design: https://www.spokane.wsu.edu/academic/design/interior_design_overview.asp
Design faculty and student honors, awards, news and events: https://www.spokane.wsu.edu/academic/design/newsandevents.html
WSU Spokane: www.spokane.wsu.edu