UEL student scoops Interiors Educators award
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Published
04 August 2022
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A UEL student scooped a top prize at the Interior Educators exhibition held at London's OXO Tower.
Yoana Miglencheva, BA Interior Design, won the collaboration and interdisciplinary practice award at the Interior Educators RE-FORM 22 Exhibition, which was held at London's OXO Tower.
Interior Educators (IE) is the national subject association that represents well-established degree programmes in interior design, interior architecture, and spatial design in the UK and Ireland.
This year, their exhibition explored how design can help form and reform society by addressing shared problems. It challenged students to analyse form through shape, appearance, and practice to answer challenges that we face in everyday life.
The collaboration and interdisciplinary practice project was set up between British Land and 3XN Architects.
The project challenged students to design a safe and illuminated hoarding and pedestrian tunnel around the development site of 2 Finsbury Avenue - which was where UEL students had previously exhibited their work at the architecture and design end-of-year exhibition, Show 22.
Yoana, who is set to graduate from UEL in September 2022, will now go on to work at Scott Whitby Studio - which belongs to Mr Alex Scott-Whitby, subject leader for architecture and design.
Yoana and her team focused her designs on three themes: sustainability, dynamic design language and security. Her proposed structure was made from recycled timber and glass to form triangular panels which would allow pedestrians to peek inside. The design brings bright colours making the hoardings suitable for Instagram backdrops.
Yoana said,
Being shortlisted felt like an incredible achievement - to see my name and UEL listed on the wall at the exhibition made me feel proud and as if I had won already,
"I started screaming and jumping when I was announced as the winner. I was so happy - it felt like all our work had paid off. Every student on our course works incredibly hard and we have terrific teachers and course leaders who push us to do our best.
"Winning this award felt like a great end to my journey here. I came here with no background in drawing or architecture, but now I feel like I have truly found my passion at UEL. I am proud of what I have achieved over these four years and so grateful to everyone who has supported me."
Dr Keith Winter, course leader for BA Interior Design, said: “UEL was long-listed for a series of prizes at the IE exhibition, however, the highlight was certainly our third-year student, Yoana, winning her prize.
"Yoana is an incredible success story at UEL coming from a non-design background as a young mother who has consistently produced high standards of work throughout her degree. This prize is a testament to hers and her student collaborators at UEL for a hoarding design for British Land and the Broadgate competition run at the start of the academic year."
For more information see architecture and physical design at UEL.