LSU’s Department of Interior Design Develops Partnership with Steelcase Inc.
Gaining
real-world knowledge and working on real-world projects before graduating
has become an important career asset for many college students. In order
to bring this knowledge and experience into the classroom, the LSU Department
of Interior Design has developed a research partnership with Steelcase,
Inc. of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“The Steelcase partnership is an exciting opportunity for the Department of Interior Design to interact and develop ideas with the industry leader in the design of work environments. The Interior Design program has developed a national reputation by pursuing educational innovation, and the Steelcase partnership is just another in a line of successful experiments,” said College of Art and Design Dean David Cronrath.
“This particular opportunity crosses disciplines and involves all aspects of the college. Of course, this should not be a surprise to any of us. As the Steelcase Corporate personnel have pointed out many times, contemporary business problems involve a strong marriage between business interests and all the design fields, from landscape architecture to product design to graphic design,” Cronrath added.
The partnership began when a group of LSU interior design faculty visited the Steelcase headquarters for a three-day “envisioning seminar.” That visit led to discussions about teaching Steelcase’s methods of observation research in the classroom.
“One of the things that came out of some of the discussions is that there is a hole in the program in that students don’t learn to observe people,” said Kathy Redmond, LSU art and design alumna and former studio instructor. “In the process of teaching, I began to realize that there’s a gap, and I knew that was exactly what this group does – they help people to look at how things happen and how people interact in an environment.”
This “teaching gap” actually exists almost everywhere, according to Bruce Simoneaux of Steelcase Applied Research Consulting, a division of Steelcase, Inc.
“What we’ve been experiencing using this process is a new way of looking at design. It is a process that is being deployed by the cutting-edge design firms around the world,” Simoneaux said. “What we’ve found is that no one’s teaching it anywhere. This is the very first time we’ve gotten together with a group of students like this.”
The partnership further developed during a three-day workshop held on campus in the spring where Steelcase employees worked with students from all areas of the College of Art and Design. As part of the learning process, students were asked to look at spaces in and around the Design Building. They were also asked to present their findings and their plan for a new “common space” on the first floor.
“It’s really exciting for me to come here and see the caliber of students. Just watching them do their presentations and their abilities to communicate and express themselves, it tells a lot about the students. Then walking around and seeing their work, there’s some really exciting work going on,” Simoneaux said.
The goal of the partnership is to form a mutually beneficial relationship. The College of Art and Design students are getting the real-world experience they desire by learning Steelcase’s observation methods and how to best utilize space. Steelcase, in turn, is hoping to learn from the students and give back to the college.
“Hopefully, we can help to elevate the ranking of the interior design group and also have designers coming out of LSU that will have skills others don’t have,” said Bonnie Dinkel, Steelcase regional sales director. “It gives them a competitive advantage. As it starts to get integrated into the curriculum here, we hope to use LSU as a benchmark for other universities, and they may want to send their students here to learn from this experience.”
Steelcase hopes to utilize the LSU students in some of their research efforts as well. Steelcase is involved in research around the world and needs trained observers to assist them.
“We’re hoping that, as part of this partnership with LSU, we’ll develop resources here in that these students will be able to become observers, and it will be part of their development and also be a part of their resumes,” Dinkel said.
Steelcase officials said they feel that the academic environment offers more of an opportunity to be creative than a corporate setting. Creativity and new knowledge are key aspects that draw clients to Steelcase – clients such as Price-Waterhouse Cooper, Exxon Mobil, Radio Shack, Boeing, and FedEx, among others.
“There’s something about academia that needs to be married to the corporate world,” Simoneaux said. “We get fired up and excited about the creativity that we see in the students and all the ideas they come up with.”
Lastly, Steelcase hopes to learn from the college generation and how they react in the workplace. The current college generation is called the “millennial generation” in the corporate world, and according to Steelcase representatives, this generation wants to have parallel careers, embraces technology, and works at a fast pace.
“We need to understand the differences between generations when we’re helping clients understand how to attract the millennial generation, so for us to come here and spend time with this generation is great for our research,” Simoneaux said.
Although the LSU Interior Design/Steelcase partnership is still in its early stages, plans are being laid out for it to be a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
“I think we have a lot of opportunities to grow this, and it can go in a lot of different directions,” Dinke said.
Written by: Ernie Ballard| LSU Office
of Public Affairs
Questions/Comments
Summer 2006
