Interior Architecture

I attended UNCG from 2004 to 2009. I transferred into Interior Architecture in 2006 and I can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. While the courses were challenging, they became much more to me than “just classes”. Studio creates an environment that brings students together in a collaborative effort which is where, I feel, the biggest impact of the department is felt…because that is what the department is all about.

While my time in Interior Architecture taught me many technical skills, the most valuable attribute I walked away with after graduation was the critical way it trained me to think. I have worked in commercial design, the furniture industry and now in the residential sphere. In every position I have held professionally since then, I have valued this cultivated trait the most. When I first started in studio, it was easy to try to force ideas out for a project, to get it done. But when you are standing in front of your professors and classmates presenting that project, you soon realize that the most important element of this beautifully crafted space and presentation is not how good it looks, but why it looks the way it looks and feels the way it feels, and what brought you to that conclusion. I learned quickly that there better be a good reason for every design choice I made in my projects and that it all related back to my concept. You are forced to think and reason and question every move you make. This question of “why” resounds in every IARc class. You learn to start questioning and looking at everything differently.

So no matter where I go in the design field throughout the course of my career, I might not draft, I might not write specs, I might not need to present, but no matter what my job description and requirements may be, I know they will require this critical way of thinking that I learned throughout out my years in the department, and for that, I am the most thankful.

www.emilywilsondesign.com