Happy Birthday Helen Louise Allen! Professor Allen spent her life teaching, traveling, and collecting the thousands of textiles in her legacy collection—a sample of which can be seen from now until April 14 in both the Design Gallery and Mecklenburg Textile Gallery. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Allen’s initial gift of 4,000 pieces, […]
The Steelcase NEXT competition focuses on innovative designs to create the NEXT workplace of the future. This year’s project client was a real estate development firm in need of a design for their new Denver office. Over 900 students participated in the competition all over the country, and from them 140 projects from 70 universities […]
Foundations: An Introduction to the Design Studies IA Program June 18 – August 2, 2019 The Interior Architecture Program is structured on a foundation emphasizing the process and communication of design, as well as the final product. The four-year professional program is accredited by the Council of Interior Design. Students learn to integrate the art of […]
September 19 – November 18, 2018 Opening Reception: Thursday, September 20, 5 – 7 pm Scarcity of land and high population density in the Netherlands motivates urban planners to pursue different spatial solutions than those prevalent in the United States. Holland has a century-old policy of providing housing for all citizens. In the late 20th […]
SoHE’s Olive Sagapolu is a Backflipping Extraordinaire Badger’s lineman and ukulele player Olive Sagapolu captured the hearts of all with his skillful backflipping videos on Instagram and toe-touches at basketball games. Also known as “Mr. Aloha,” Sagapolu brings joy and happiness to everyone he sees. He was recently featured in a national ESPN story that […]
Designs by Interior Architecture and Landscape Architecture Students June 8 – August 3, 2018 A selection of design works by upper level students in the Interior Architecture and Landscape Architecture Programs at UW-Madison. Interior Architecture coursework combines the art of design with social science to create revolutionary spaces and environments for people. Landscape Architecture provides […]
On October 26, 2017, the Design Leadership Symposium welcomed Kelly Hensler of Potter Lawson. Kelly received her Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design from our very own School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin- Madison before completing her Master’s Degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After completing her Master’s Degree, Kelly worked […]
On October 5, the students of Design Leadership Symposium heard from Nikki Anderson and Grace Cervantes. Nikki is the owner of a small clothing store in Madison called Change Boutique and Grace, a School of Human Ecology Interior Design aluma, has had a large role in helping grow and expand parts of the business. Beyond just […]
Design Leadership Symposium (DS 252) By Students Syeeda Simmons, Xinyan Xu, and Jian Mao (MJ) “Every day, every cycle, Speed Queen performs.” On Thursday September 14th Melissa Destree of Destree Architecture & Design dropped in as a guest speaker in the Design Leadership Symposium class. Now who is Melissa Destree? Melissa was born in La […]
December 8 – 11, 2017 Special Gallery Hours: Friday, December 8, 10 am – 7 pm Saturday and Sunday, December 9 – 10, Noon – 4 pm Monday, December 11, 10 am – 4 pm Opening reception: Friday, December 8, 5 – 7 pm The Interior Architecture Showcase features the work of IA students who have […]
Interior Architecture Program Granted Full Accreditation SoHE’s Interior Architecture program received full accreditation from the Council for Interior Design Accreditation last week. This status remains effective for the next six years, guaranteeing that plenty of future badgers will have the opportunity to major in this program.
Experiencing Space: Designs by Interior Architecture and Landscape Architecture Friday, June 8 – Friday, August 3, 2018 A selection of design works by upper level students in the Interior Architecture and Landscape Architecture Programs at UW-Madison. Both programs emphasize problem-solving skills and critical thinking based on ecological principles, societal needs, and cultural foundations. Design Studies […]
Lisa Johnson (’17), an Interior Architecture major, has made big moves since graduating this past May. Just months after getting her degree, Lisa now lives and works in New York City at a successful design firm called ICRAVE. Finding a steady job after graduation is a stressful prospect for many students, so Lisa filled us […]
SoHE Interior Architecture student Courtney Christensen was recently announced as one of the first place winners of the Sherwin-Williams Student Design Challenge 2017. Christensen won the commercial design category with her re-imagining of the UW Credit Union. In regards to the project, Christensen said: “For the UW Credit Union E-Commerce Center project my classmates and […]
In 2012, interior design grad and student athlete Emily Ostertag (’06 BS, ’08 MS) landed her dream job at a world-class architecture and interior design firm in Kansas City. That same firm was recently granted the $84 million project to rebuild UW-Madison’s SERF recreation center and swimming pool. While some may see Ostertag’s connection back […]
About the Center The Center for Design and Material Culture (CDMC) is one of five Centers of Excellence within UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology (SoHE) that promotes human-centered scholarship. In partnership with SoHE’s Design Studies Department the CDMC serves diverse communities of scholars who study, practice, and experience material culture and design as complex relationships […]
The Ruth Davis Design Gallery features exhibitions on a broad range of subjects relating to the processes and results of design. Explore a selection of previous exhibitions. Past student work Past faculty and alumni work
The students, faculty, staff, and researchers in the Design Studies Department at UW-Madison consider and produce designed artifacts, and study the process of designing. Through scholarship, analysis, curriculum, and outreach, we advocate design as an encompassing discipline central to every aspect of life. We emphasize and promote a unified, multi-disciplinary, global approach to design, and we […]
Interior Architecture Showcase: Six Years of Excellence Friday, March 17 – Tuesday, March 28, 2017 Council of Interior Design Accreditation Exhibit Experience the design communication skills that majors must master in order to earn a B.S. degree in interior architecture. The exhibition features examples of student course work including sketching, rendering, computer-aided drafting, and three-dimensional […]
Design 2017: Juried Design Concepts from Across Campus April 14 – April 23, 2017 The best application of design principles and design thinking in real form, this juried exhibition features undergraduate and graduate student work in any field of design taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Submissions may include graphic design, interior architecture, landscape design, […]
Joy Huntington, PhD Student Design Studies Researching the Rise of Single Women Homeowners When Joy Huntington designed homes for her clients in Pittsburgh she was often intrigued by how differently men and women would react to certain design ideas. “Our firm did everything – from picking out towels and flatware to designing the home. I […]
Wisconsin Without Borders: A Global Initiative June 5 – Aug 25, 2017 Ruth Davis Design Gallery As a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 4W Initiative, students and faculty members from the Design Studies program in the School of Human Ecology have partnered with traditional artisans around the world developing coordinated microenterprises projects. Materials and […]
Team ‘Net Zero Wisconsin’ Takes Second Place in Nation-wide Engineering Student Design Competition The road to victory has been long for eight students studying the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, each majoring in Engineering or Interior Architecture. Last August 2015 they applied to the national U.S. Department of Engineering (DOE) Race to Zero […]
While I was working one quiet Friday morning in the T3 offices, Professor Wei Dong came running in excitedly. He went right into Linda Zwicker’s office to tell her something important, I didn’t think anything of it, many professors come into our offices to chat with Linda. Minutes later, an excited Linda and Wei come […]