I met last week with Nancy Turner, the Director of Development and Alumnae Affairs, and was thrilled to hear first-hand about Goucher’s new library and cultural center – The Athenaeum. It’s a green building with a silver rating from LEEDs. Let’s take a little tour.

When I attended, Goucher was an all women’s college. We were fairly ticked when they started admitting men. But you have to roll with the times. I am no longer ticked, but enthused about their international approach to education. Every student must spend at least 3 weeks studying in another country. They’re the first college to dedicate themselves to the global village, so to speak.

The exterior is constructed from Butler stone, redwood and copper.

Part of the environmental design includes 2 grass-covered roofs. Grass acts as an insulator to keep heating costs low. The large windows are light sensitive and change throughout the day to make the best use of the natural energy.

The Forum is the central feature of the new Athenaeum. It’s modeled after the amphitheaters of Europe. The cool thing is that the character can change according to what happens to be oging on. The steps leading up from the stage can accommodate crowds of varying sizes.

There’s more!

The new library is housed here. They now have a proper home for Goucher’s Special Collections, such as the Burke Collection of Jane Austen first editions and letters, etc. Who knew that was there? Not me, until now. Criminal!

I don’t have a proper photo, but the stacks can be seen from the exterior as lines of color. It’s open, airy and beautiful.

I like the idea of exercising while listening to a lecture. The Athenaeum also includes a restaurant…

meeting and lecture rooms and …

lots of lounge areas with wide screen TVs.

Oh yes, and there are a couple of large, rooftop meeting spaces as well. With all this great stuff, who has time to study?

Green LEEDs Features

• High performance glass reduces heat gain int he building.
• Green roofs further reduce heat gain and alleviate storm-water runoff.
• Recycled building materials were used throughout the building, including construction materials and carpet. Fifty percent of all construction debris was recycled.
• LED and fluorescent lighting was used throughout, as well as solar water heating, light-activated window shades, and motion sensors for lighting.
• A rain garden planted with shrubs, trees and herbaceous vegetation helps control the stormwater runoff and filters pollutants.
• Existing wetlands and forests surrounding the Athenaeum were conserved. Yay! I loved those walks through the woods.

Cool building, isn’t it? Does/did your college have a building like this? Do you know someone who has battled the fierce Goucher Gophers on the playing fields? If you’re in the Baltimore area, be sure to stop by Goucher and tell them I said hello. The next time I’m in town, I’m heading straight for the Jane Austen Collection.

I think she did an especially good job with the eyelashes. Caroline, what typeface did you use?

Do you remember Twiggy? She is now an actress, but in the 1960′s she was a super model known for being very thin – hence “Twiggy”.

Here are this year’s winning designs.

Grand Prize: Cocoon Meat & Fish Cooker

Cocoon is a conceptual cooker designed by Rickard Hederstierna from Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden. It uses radio frequency identification (RFID) signals to identify muscle cells in meat and fish dishes and suggests cooking times. The idea is to “use science to create food, thereby decreasing the burden on the planet by reducing the need for intensive fishing and farming.”¬† The concept is to ‚Äúgrow‚Äù meat and fish from pre-packaged sachets, like making popcorn in a microwave. So you don’t actually catch the fish or raise the cow. Well, it looks cool, but I can’t stop thinking of Soylent Green.

Here are the other finalists.

Teleport Fridge

Beam me up, Scotty! Designed by Dulyawat Wongnawa, from  Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, The Teleport Fridge simply takes your order for food and teleports it directly to you, nice and fresh. It reverses the process by taking the leftovers and transporting them to the recycling center. I need this right now.

Flying In The Rain

From China, student Penghao Shan, Zhejiang, from Sci-tech University, comes a device that uses flying balls to catch rain water, purifies it and delivers it to the drinker. The homing tray also reads fingerprints to determine what additives should be added to the water to ensure the drinker optimizes his or her health.

Mol?©culaire

This concept was a little difficult for my tiny brain to understand. It’s a 3D molecular food printer. Designer, Nico Kl?ɬ§ber, from the K?Éln International School of Design, Germany, was influenced by chefs who scientifically experiment with food and food to create fresh ideas. The Mol?©culaire simplifies the cooking process and acts as a computer numerical control (CNC) food printer. It autonomously prepares basic and otherwise difficult-to-create two and three dimensional parts of meals. It works with a layer-by-layer printing process using small particles from diverse ingredients. This provides simplicity, accuracy, repeatability and, of course, great tasting food! Anyone who can explain this to me get a Design Hole T shirt.

Read on!

Le Petit Prince

From Czech Republic, Martin Miklica, of Brno University of Technology, brings us Le Petit Prince. It’s is a robotic greenhouse designed to facilitate the future exploration and population of Mars. Le Petit Prince takes care of a plant it carries inside its glass case, which is mounted on top of its four-legged pod. In search of nutrients to care for the plant, the robot is programmed to intuitively learn the optimal method for this process. It also reports its movements and progress to its fellow greenhouse robots via wireless communication so that they can learn from each other. Okay!

Renew

Renew “blasts” garments clean. An infrared scanner and radio frequency identification (RFID) gather information about a garment from specifically designed clothing tags. Slide the garment through the slot and the steamer does the rest. It’s as simple as that. Nice looking! It was designed by Louis Filosa of Purdue University in the USA.

Naturewash

Naturewash is a waterless washing machine that uses negative ions to wash nano-coated fabrics. Horizontal in shape, the washing machine has three touch screen settings: clean clothes, grass scent and flower scent. (What, no Febreze?!) A user can lie or sit on Naturewash to clean or refresh the clothes they are wearing. For a more thorough clean, clothes can be placed flat on the washer. This could be quite useful in a frat house. I wonder if that’s where designer, Zhenpeng Li, from Zhejiang University in China got the idea?

Bifoliate

Here we have a wall-mounted dishwasher. One side is the dishwasher. The other side stores them. Nifty! You don’t need to empty the washer. You wait until the dishes stored there are dirty and wash them. While they’re washing, you use the dishes on the other side. Designed by Toma Brundzaite from the Vilnius Academy of Art in Lithuania.

Time to vote! Which design would you most like to have. For me, it’s definitely the refrigerator. How about you?

This is a reminder that it’s still not too late to enter my Dorm Room D?©cor Contest! You have until the end of the month to show off your decorating and budgeting skills. Can you decorate a room for $100 or less? You know you can.

The top three designs will win super-fantastic prizes from FLOR, Always Mod, Alluminare, and Benjamin Moore. For more details on prizes (some shown here), follow this link, and this one. Then start designing!

And, you don’t have to do one in “real life”. Email me and I’ll send you a floor plan (only 13′ x 10′) of a virtual room complete with photos.

Anyone who wants to enter should email me for the rules at designholeonline at gmail dot com. They’re very simple – I promise.

Need some ideas? Here are a few.

• Dress up a wall using decals. You can make your own easily.
• Buy stuff from the hardware store, like yard sticks and washers , to create your own mural.
• Drag something from over your Mom’s house and paint it.
• Buy a white sheet at K-Mart and tie dye it.
• Make some iron-on decals and design your own matching curtains and bedspread made from old sheets.

Have fun! But don’t forget to email me for the rules. There are lots of ideas there, too.

Their shop features jewelry, clothing and lots of other great stuff. Let’s take a peek at some of their home d?©cor.

The Butler’s Flatware by artist Adam Smith is made from antique, solid sterling flatware, handmade bronze frames, and antique tintypes, presented in a wood case with magnets on back of pieces.

The Caracas Coffee Mug and bowl, by artist Vanessa Boulton, is ceramic. The mug depicts two girlfriends catching up on gossip on the front with a cute dog contemplating a cupcake on the back. The bowel features a girl on her bike. The designs are based on original illustrations by the artist.

Sweet and simple handthrown ceramic designs by artist Irene McCollam. Choose from bottle, egg, and stout. Available individually in Creme, Putty or Blue Glaze.

Pink Bumpy Teacups by artist Lisa Bradley. Cup 5 1/4″ diameter, 7″ wide including handle 4 1/2″ tall, saucer 7″ diameter.

The College for Creative Studies, the highly competitive art school here in Detroit, hosts its annual Spring Show that gets underway this Friday. Support student art by shopping at ShopSCAD and CCS.

“ I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my own ship” РLouisa May Alcott

First and foremost, I would like to say hello to all of the Design Hole enthusiasts who are faithfully appreciating the amazing site that Jennifer Mitchell has worked hard to develop. Before I launch into my contribution as a guest blogger, I feel it would only be appropriate to introduce myself. My name is Kara Samuels. I am currently a senior at The College for Creative Studies, majoring in Interior Design.

Kara’s design for Leo Burnett

I love to write, and I am very appreciative of the opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences with you. The following entry is a basic overview of my sentiments on my time spent as a design student at CCS. Hopefully, it will be inspirational, but I’m willing to settle for entertaining or even “pretty cool”. So here it goes:

At the age of 20, both impatient and na?Øve, I began my career as an official College for Creative Studies student. At the time, I knew that I had always had a knack for artistic and expressive endeavors and had definitely come to the right place. However, despite my elation over my acceptance, I had concerns regarding my own immature lack of passion and direction. Who was I? Who and what did I want to be? Would I make any money? Each one of these questions raced tirelessly through my mind day after day.

Kara’s entry in the Giordes Knot rug competition

Changing a major in mid-stream

In October of 2004 I had an epiphany that changed my goals,my way of thinking and my sense of purpose. The root of this burst of intuition was my budding interest in interior design. Notwithstanding the fact that pursuing this as a major would enable me to find a well-paying job, interior design spoke to my personal and inherent desire to be creative.

I was excited to realize that my thoughts, my visions and my analyses could serve as a mold for three-dimensional spaces – spaces that could be viewed from the outside and inhabited on the inside. The mundane tedium of sketching the same bowl of oranges and haphazardly arranged still-lifes would be happily replaced with realistic and intricate puzzles. Each puzzle would require unique insight and original solutions that would be refreshingly distinct and equally challenging.

To my utter dismay I discovered that changing my major would require sacrificing four and a half additional years of my life to education. In all honesty, I was devastated. I vividly remember telling myself, “This is ABSURD!! Do you know what this means? I’ll be TWENTY FIVE by the time I graduate! I’ll be ancient!!”

Thankfully, after many hours of intense thought and brooding, I decided to override my apprehensions and resign myself to a more productive mantra,“Four years are going to pass no matter what I choose to do with my time.”

Kara’s design for the Michigan Central Train Station

25 is not ancient
Today I sit here, a 25 year-old interior design senior on the brink of graduation, hearing those words echoing in my mind. I am, contrary to my earlier beliefs, NOT ancient. I am an educated adult with a promising future and a wealth of professional experience within my grasp. With the concerns I harbored as a 20 year-old fading into the past, I am nothing but appreciative of my personal adventure at the College for Creative Studies, as well as the hard work asked of me to know all that I know now.

Throughout the past four years I have developed fundamental design techniques: drafting, programming, sketching and space planning. I have become proficient in industry software standards, which include AutoCAD, Revit, 3D Studio Max and Photoshop. My skills and confidence in researching, composing coherent concepts, analyzing space and presenting have all been nurtured and honed.

Equally as important, I have developed strong and special friendships with amazing people who share my passion and appreciate me for who I am. The rewards have been joyously fulfilling. I owe a lot to myself for bravely pursuing what soon became my passion. I am also very thankful for the extraordinary CCS interior design instructors who inspired me to push beyond my creative comfort zone, encouraging me to explore space without inhibitions.

Interior design may have its stringent codes, standards, precedents and procedures, but it also undoubtedly provides the exhilarating freedom to grow and to achieve greater clarity in our perception of the world around us.

“Never regard study as a duty, but as an enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.” РAlbert Einstein

Thank you for reliving my journey with me. Hopefully, we’re never so afraid that we deny ourselves the opportunity to pursue our dreams.

Thanks Kara for sharing your experience as an interior design student. I remember the sleepless nights working on presentations before finals. CCS is a rigorous program, but well worth it.

Does anyone else have a design school memory they’d like to share? Leave a comment and let us know.

Kasia is one of 16 students who won the award. Winners were chosen by a panel of designers and journalists. The foundation, named for the late Angelo Donghia, is a nonprofit group that supports the advancement of education in interior design. The foundation also supports research into AIDS and its related diseases and treatments.

Let’s take a peek at 2 of her her award-winning projects.

They’re a bit hard to see these up close, but I think you still get a general idea of her talent, and of the high-caliber work that comes out of CCS – a school I’m (obviously) very proud to be associated with.

Kasia says, “I look at interior spaces like a painter looks at his/her blank canvases – ready to be painted with beautiful colors, textures and materials. Living in an industrial city I am exposed to a different field of Interior Design, which is Color and Materials. My future goal is to work in the automotive industry. I like to research materials and find creative ways to apply them into interior spaces.”

“Since I joined the CCS family I have grown a lot as an artist and designer. Last summer I had the opportunity to be a Color and Materials intern at USM Boats in Arlington, WA. During my stay I was responsible for material selection for two boats: Bayliner 285 and Maxum 3100, in which my proposed material options will be in production in 2009. USM is part of the Brunswick Group which is manufacturing not only Bayliner and Maxum, but also Meridian yachts and Trophy boats.”

Kasia also worked for Nike last year. Not too shabby, huh? And as if that weren’t enough, she’s also taking a minor in textiles. Why not leave her a note of congratulations in the comment section?
If you’re interested in finding out more about the Interior Design Department at CCS, go here.