BIID ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL STUDENT DESIGN CHALLENGE

The British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) is delighted to announce the winners of its inaugural Student Design Challenge 2015. Open to third year BA Interior Design and Interior Architecture degree students, the event was a one day, charrette-style, competition that brought students together to design collaboratively in teams. The event was held on Saturday 14th November 2016 at Campus London, Google’s community for entrepreneurs.

·         The winner of the BIID Student Design Challenge 2015 is the University of Lincoln team

·         Second place is awarded to the Birmingham City University team

·         Third place goes to the University of Portsmouth team

With 8 student teams competing on the day, the event brought together a group of the UK’s finest aspiring young design talent. Each student team was nominated to compete by educators from Interior Design and Interior Architecture courses across the UK. Students were gathered into groups of six, with an experienced, and practicing, interior designer and BIID member to provide guidance and advice throughout the challenge.  These mentors included BIID Vice President Susie Rumbold and Past President of the BIID, Diana Yakeley.

The BIID would like to give a special recognition to all of the following universities and BIID mentors who took part in the challenge:

·         Portsmouth University – BIID mentor: Diana Yakeley, Yakeley Associates

·         Birmingham City University – BIID mentor: Susie Rumbold, Tessuto

·         De Montfort University – BIID mentor: Cinzia Moretti, Moretti Interior Design

·         Lincoln University – BIID mentor: Matthew Freeman, HLM

·         Glasgow Caledonian – BIID mentor: Gilly Craft, Koubou

·         University Campus Suffolk – BIID mentor: Ariana Steinbeck, RPW

·         Coventry University – BIID mentor: York Yao, York Design Studio

·         London Metropolitan – BIID mentor: Louise Hart, Atkins Global

This year’s competition brief focused on the thriving tech industry based around Old Street Roundabout, also known as London’s Silicon Roundabout, in East London. Students were asked to create a highly flexible co-working space to accommodate London’s booming tech start-up sector. Teams were given just seven hours to develop their design, before presenting it to the judging panel.

Chaired by BIID President Daniel Hopwood, the judging panel included fellow-judges Ben Spriggs, Deputy Editor of Elle Decoration and Katie Treggiden, design journalist and founder of Fiera magazine.

After much deliberation, the judges cast their vote on the design credentials of each submission, as well as the individual input and group work of each team.

 “The calibre of the student’s work was very impressive and they showed real creativity and innovation in their responses. It was a privilege to witness some of the UK’s emerging design talent at work.” comments Daniel Hopwood, President of the BIID. “The BIID aims to support interior design professionals from the earliest stages of their careers and this is great way to encourage and hopefully, inspire the student design community. I’d like to thank our fantastic judges Ben Spriggs and Katie Treggiden, for giving up their time to judge this competition.” 

“Picking a winner from such a strong range of entries was a difficult decision,” explains, Ben Spriggs, Deputy Editor of Elle Decoration. “However, the winning team’s entry from the University of Lincoln, showcased a highly cohesive, compelling and creative design that truly captured the tech inspired brief of the competition. Throughout the day, the team worked together in a highly professional manner and incorporated a great range of different ideas from each member to create the winning design.”

To view the awards page, please click here. All images from the day will also be uploaded to the BIID’s Facebook Page.

The BIID would like to congratulate the winning team and all participants of the 2015 BIID Student Design Challenge.