International Flair

Interior design students lend expertise to improve communities, services

Designers of all disciplines are trained to know the importance of becoming familiarized with the mission, organizational and spatial needs of clients before applying and formulating design solutions through space planning and interior development. Just as important, is understanding how occupants or users are utilizing the space. Are they comfortable in their surroundings? Is the space safe, functional and being employed in the best manner?

Kent State interior design students and faculty are participating in community projects that require looking at a client’s current needs and beyond, envisioning a future for a space, five, 10 or 15 years ahead.

One such project is for the International Institute of Akron, a non-profit organization that assists and provides numerous services to foreign-born people as they enter and adjust to the local community. The institute is housed in the Findlay Academy on E. Tallmadge Street in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood. Since its founding in 1916, the institute has undergone many changes and now is planning to build a new facility in partnership with the city of Akron, the Akron Public Schools, Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority and Mobile Meals of Summit County. The new structure will serve the area as a community learning center.

The institute is now housed in a facility that is cramped and crowded, says Keith. “We’re moving in a new direction and are hoping to broaden our vision to provide more services here and beyond – regionally, in the state and globally.”

The institute and its staff of about 10 full-time and five part-time workers handle about 10,000 immigration-related problems and help reunite 850 families each year. With the aid of hundreds of volunteers, the group provides highly regarded classes in English as a Second Language and other educational training; immigration and employment classes; interpreting and translation; and refugee resettlement. The institute serves a diverse group of immigrants including Hispanics, Liberians, Bosnians and East Somalian populations and touts one of the largest banks of translators in the region, assisting up to 300 clients a year, Keith says.

The junior level interior design studio interacted with staff and clients recently examining the institute’s history, mission, and function in order to produce an updated needs assessment; gathering the necessary information for developing conceptual and preliminary interior space plans for presentation to IIA board members and Braun & Steidl Architects Inc., the architecture firm consulting on the possibility of design and construction of a new facility.

“This project gives students an opportunity to look at the current needs and to think about what the mission of the International Institute really is,” says Chere Doiron, assistant professor of interior design. “The group wants to be able to broaden its services to include more educational programming, a cross-cultural translation center and client mediation.”

As part of their semester work, Charlene Zurfley, a junior interior design major, is part of the student group who developed space planning alternatives for the proposed new IIA facility. The group worked on plans to improve traffic patterns and on developing new spaces that the institute needs in order to provide more effective services.

“To me, this is one of the most intriguing projects we have done thus far. This is the first project that we have actually worked with a business to assess their needs and then to design spaces for,” Zurfley says. “I think this project has given us the opportunity to learn more about working with clients and users of space rather than just the design aspects of a project.”

In the interior design program one of the most important things Zurfley says she has learned is how to observe people.

“In this field, it is very important to observe the end user of the space. By watching people, we have learned to understand how others function in a space and what they need to make it most effective,” she says.

The students observed institute staff, interviewed all of the department heads and met with the project architects before laying out plans for the space and presenting their visions to the group.

The group not only saved the IIA, a not-for-profit organization, anywhere from $10 to $15,000 with their assistance with the alternatives proposed in the needs assessment, conceptual development and space planning, but also gave the staff and board a feel for what the physical environment of the center could be..

“Some of the designs were very practical and others had a futuristic layer to them. It was fun to think about all of the options that we have with the building,” Keith says.