Francis Redublo froze in her seat as she heard her name being announced.
The senior interior design major was surprised and relieved to find out her team came in second place at the International Interior Design Association’s Southern California Student Design Charette.
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Redublo said. “My team was either in tears or clapping and cheering with excitement. This was the first time I participated in the IIDA Charette but I had done a similar event in the past.”
Her team, which included Leah Impey, San Diego Mesa College; Lindsay Graves, Mt. San Antonio College; Tyera Black-Davis, Art Institute San Diego; and Maegan Iamjan, Otis College of Art and Design, won $4000 for their design concept, which utilized urban gardening in a flexible retail concept.
Students were placed in six teams with five members to develop a flexible retail concept located in Downtown Los Angeles that included a specialty market, a bistro restaurant and a cooking classroom. The teams then had 4.5 hours to collaborate and come up with a creative concept and solution.
“The concept of our design was ‘Bergamot,’ which showcased vertical gardens with growing herbs and produce to represent living in Los Angeles,” Redublo said. “The market, restaurant, classroom and kitchen is surrounded by bountiful gardens where the users can just select fresh produce from the garden itself and purchase it.”
The teams were given five minutes to present their projects to a panel of judges from design and architecture firms located in Southern California and other students. The panel met with each group in private. After a short wait, the first and second place winner were announced. Group 5, which Redublo was a member of, came in second place.
Held Nov. 14 at Irvine-based sustainable design firm LPA, Inc., the event brought together 30 students from interior design programs at Cal State Long Beach, San Diego Mesa College, Mt. San Antonio College, the Art Institute of San Diego and Otis College of Art and Design. A maximum of three students from each school were nominated by BFA faculty to compete in the charette, Redublo said. Classmates Madeline Manansala and Jose Leon were the other two CSULB students chosen to join her at the event, but were not part of her team.
“We found out after [we were nominated] that the way that this competition is set up is that it is not school versus school, but we would actually be competing against each other,” she added. “By competing and working with different students from different schools, it shows us how it will be in the real world because we do not get to choose who we team up with on projects.”
Collaborating with an unfamiliar group was hard for Redublo. She said they focused on their strengths and weaknesses when it came time to develop a design concept.
“It was definitely a struggle trying to delegate design input because not all of us have the same design aesthetic,” Redublo said. “I was frustrated a lot of the time because I ended up doing something that someone else was supposed to do.”
The senior plans on using the win to keep pushing herself to achieve her goals.
“Winning second place definitely made me believe in my abilities and it has been a great learning experience,” Redublo said. “I think that it definitely taught me to work faster and to just stick to my decisions vs jumping around. Since I was given this opportunity to compete and represent my program and school, I will continue to push myself as best as I can.”