Summer 2009 - Interior Design in China

This study program was offered to interior design students who needed to take HEV 339: Studio II: Special User Groups. Instruction focused on developing an appropriate intergenerational center solution for a site in Beijing, to address the changing societal trends of housing/care trends for older adults and children and included an emphasis on the design process. Students had the opportunity to expand their education through in-class teaching in the U.S. and Beijing, as well as out-of-class excursions to a nursing home, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. Daily travel throughout Beijing demonstrated the effects of expansion and other problems of urbanization.

London, Florence and Rome

The interior design program has completed two previous trips to these cities as part of a course entitled "Design and Technology in England and Italy." Students had the opportunity to expand their education through in-class teaching and out-of-class excursions. Instruction in London focused on digital documentation of historical sites through photography and documentation of sites via a sketchbook. Students were given the opportunity to sketch in some renowned historic structures such as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Instruction in Florence provided an introduction to furniture detailing, historical styles of decoration, and preparation of project pieces, followed by visits to artisan workshops that focused on historical decoration: woodworking, bronzing, marble inlay, and gilding. Excursions in Rome consisted of sites such as the Colosseum, Vatican City, Sistine Chapel, and the Pantheon.