SOFA CONNECT 2016
SOFA CONNECT 2016
Kara Hampton, Gabrielle Bennett, Miranda Herring, and David Marchese created an immersive interior space that received first place at the fourth annual CONNECT student design competition in Chicago. The four students, advised by Sigrid Zahner, associate professor of fine arts and associate professor of industrial design Laura Drake, utilized leftover materials to produce an entire interior installation.
The final product was based on the idea of regeneration and the allure of the seemingly mundane. The students and their advisors named their work A Natural Urban Environment. This title reflects their central theme, as the proposal describes it: "the tension that is often felt between human intervention and natural spaces."
One of the most intriguing aspects of the project was how the team selected its materials for constructing the furniture and other pieces on display. While attending classes in Yue-Kong Pao Hall, the students noticed that there were many discarded materials that were never reused between the various studio spaces.