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Student Design Challenge

The BIID Student Design Challenge is an annual competition for final year university students of interior design and interior architecture.

Student Design Challenge Benefits

  1. Professional Mentorship

    Work with a professional mentor to gain valuable industry insight.

  2. Student Design Challenge Certificate

    Impress the judges to take home the coveted award for best team.

  3. Work to a brief

    Experience what it is like to work in a design team with an exciting brief.

  4. Challenge yourself

    Throw yourself into a fun, full on and fast paced day of design, innovation and creativity.

  5. Presentation Skills

    Hone your skills to win the bid by effectively communicating your design decisions during the presentation round.

  6. Network with students from across the UK

    Engage with your peers over lunch and refreshments.

Become a Member

  • RAISE YOUR PROFILE
  • BUILD YOUR NETWORK
  • UPDATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Find out More

Get involved in the BIIDs annual design competition for final year interior design and interior architecture students THE CHALLENGE

Students Working

The BIID Student Design Challenge is an annual competition for final year university students of interior design and interior architecture.

Universities are represented by their team, who have a limited time to turn a brief, given to them on the day, into a cohesive design for a panel of judges.

Past briefs have included a start-up space for entrepreneurs, a temporary shelter for displaced refugees, a job centre for the ‘third age’, a youth radio station and performance venue, a zero-waste supermarket and cafe, and a multi-storey mixed use boiophilic community hub. 

  • The stakes are high; only three teams can place
  • The challenge has been running since 2015
  • The judges are all industry experts
  • Each team is assigned a professional mentor
  • All students are sent a certificate to add to their CV's

Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the Student Design Challenge went digital in 2021 and is now an online event. Taking the challenge online has enabled the BIID to reach a further audience, making the challenge more accessible. 

The Student Design Challenge won the Memcom Excellence Award 2021 for Best Student Engagement Initiative. The judges’ comments “The BIID has come up with a competition that provides genuine challenge for student members alongside the opportunity to work as a team and receive mentorship from expert professionals. The organisation turned the challenge of Covid into an opportunity, taking the competition digital. This innovative approach has widened access and improved engagement from student members. Providing a real-life design challenge on a grand scale and within a limited time helps to develop skills that are entirely relevant to professional practice. The popularity of the competition is evident through application numbers and is directly linked to recruitment of student members.”

 

 

"The BIID student challenge was a great experience. The skills and knowledge I've gained from this will help my career as an interior designer in the future."

Georgia Hayes, Student, University of Hertfordshire