Emotional remodeling

Through a class project to create an interior design plan for a local grief counseling center, Baylor students gained a greater understanding of how environment has a significant impact on a person’s emotions.

Michelle Brown, senior lecturer and interior design technology coordinator in family and consumer sciences for Baylor's Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, assigned students in her senior-level Studio III class to research Jamie's Place, a local grief counseling center. Students in the commercial design course were tasked to create an original interior design plan for the center's use.

Jamie's Place, which does not have a permanent location, provides support groups for children who have experienced the death of a family member or friend.

Interior design student Kristen Schulze said the research allowed her to better understand the emotional state of those going through bereavement and the best ways to design the clinic.

"It was evident that our class put much more thought and effort into this project because it is a local project," Schulze said. "We understood that people from our personal community would be using this space, and I believe it truly inspired us to put our best foot forward on the design."

The students' presentation provided the director of Jamie's Place with ideas for designing the space at the Hillcrest MacArthur Building, if a grant for the project is received. Last spring, senior interior design students completed a similar project for the Baylor Scott & White McClinton Cancer Center Infusion Suite.

"Working with an actual client gives the students practice with interviewing and developing a program," Brown said. "It also gets them excited about the possibility that their design could be implemented. It is not just a hypothetical class project."