BID students studying Interior Design

BID Projects – Conestoga College

• ARIDO Jun 16, 2021
• • Share this article

ARIDO would like to celebrate the class of 2021 from Ontario ARIDO-recognized schools and ensure their work is appreciated. ARIDO has worked with these schools to promote a selection of 4th year BID student work on BLOG//ARIDO and will be posting the work each Wednesday during the coming weeks.

Our House - Leah Lorentz

Up to 300,000 individuals face homelessness each year in Canada and this number will increase due to the pandemic. The current design of shelters detracts from the resident’s wellbeing and are unsafe. The Canadian Mental Health Association indicates suicide rates in this marginalized demographic are 40% higher and 100% [of individuals experiencing homelessness] have experienced trauma. This approach to a shelter addresses the underlying issues, assisting in rebuilding what trauma has taken away.

Our House is a trauma and psychologically informed design, providing a safe and stable home-like environment for those facing homelessness. This multi-functional interior seeks to inspire residents towards meaningful engagement and development through a carefully orchestrated social zoning of communal spaces that maintain occupant’s safety. 

As improved wellbeing is a priority, the centre will maintain physical and visual connections to nature through biophilic design principles. This approach creates long-term change that will rebuild purpose within communities that have a sense of being lost and forgotten. While this concept does not bring financial gain, it illustrates how Interior Design changes lives.

 Kitchener Public Library - Losang Nyima

The new branch of the Kitchener Public Library spaces encourages connectivity through its adjacency to ensure all spaces within the library will inspire and encourage users to interact with the local community. The interior space will be designed with flexibility to accommodate new technology, future expansion, and renovation.

Encouraged interaction will be acoustically controlled by grouping specific needs in various spaces, with consideration to interior materials, furnishings, and special needs to meet the necessary acoustic expectations to improve and provide acoustic control. This library design will incorporate Universal Design for Learning to have equitable access to library resources and accommodate people of all ages in a safe open-concept environment.

Bloom Birthing Center - Melissa Bagin

Bloom Birthing Center’s goal is to create and establish a safe, welcoming, and community environment, where women are able to have natural low-risk childbirths. The goal of this facility is to achieve optimal health and wellness for the whole community through culturally integrated care, education, and activities. 

Through evidence-based research, the implementation of biophilic, sensory, and therapeutic design will contribute to the overall mental and physical success individuals will have within the space. In order to ensure this success, spaces must reflect the research concepts of bound and binding environments, which contributes to how individuals interact and react with the interior environment. Since the comfort of the clients is of top priority, this cohesive design balance will establish a comfortable, relaxing, safe, and secure, environment for women and their families during prenatal and postnatal care.

The Museum of Diversity - Hope Braga

Museums today have expanded into places of informal learning, interactive exhibits, and spaces that set the stage for the local communities to inspire and communicate with one another. Museums are also constantly evaluating how they can encourage participation from everyone in the community, and because of this outreach, the museum has become a diverse place of people, values, and ideas. As such, museums should be designed to encourage and support this diversity, which can create a stronger community. Through my research I have come to understand that the built environment can have a direct impact on the human experience.

This design concept for re-envisioning THE MUSEUM is specifically focused on encouraging and supporting the diversity of its population within the community including a stronger sense of communication, understanding, and representation. This design concept evaluates how the design of public spaces can encourage diversity and how museums can better serve and connect their communities by developing more informal opportunities for their visitors to learn, interact and share ideas. This design concept also supports the well-being of both staff and visitors, creating an experience that fuels curiosity and a positive visitor experience.