AMES, Iowa — Two Iowa State University interior design seniors are among three finalists in the Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) student competition hosted by the Great Plains Chapter of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

Kylie Groenenboom, New Sharon, and McKenzie Phillips, Cedar Rapids, both submitted projects developed in the fall 2015 interior design office design studio, taught by Associate Professor Cigdem Akkurt, for the Steelcase NEXT Student Design Competition. (Groenenboom’s project was a semifinalist in that competition.)

Undergraduate and graduate students from Iowa State; University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, submitted entries in this year’s IIDA IDEA student competition.

Featuring natural materials and pops of color, Groenenboom’s design for an adaptive, flexible workplace included a reception area, a work café, a “living room” for impromptu meetings, an open office with options ranging from traditional benching to a collaborative loung area, a distance-learning classroom and a set of private offices to serve as a temporary escape in an open office plan.

With controlled acoustics, reclaimed wood beams and linens that filter light, Phillips’ “coworking campground” concept for “nomadic” employees provided small focus rooms for individual use, private offices, group meeting rooms, open office and collaboration areas that can also serve as social gathering spaces, a classroom, an ideation zone and a work café with a shuffleboard table, putting green and ping pong table.

The winner—who will be announced Saturday, April 23, at the IIDA Great Plains Chapter IDEA 2016 in Cedar Rapids—will receive an expense-paid trip to the NeoCon design exposition and conference in Chicago in June.

Contacts:
Kylie Groenenboom, Interior Design senior, krzbm@iastate.edu
McKenzie Phillips, Interior Design senior, mlp@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, Design Communications, (515) 294-9289, hsauer@iastate.edu