USU students get international acclaim for designing building to uplift slum neighborhood

•Interior design senior exhibit opens Monday

By Ashley Schiller

April 2, 2008 | "Design Like You Give A Damn."

Barbara Lundberg does. Interior design is not just about picking fabrics and coordinating paint tones, she said. An innovative building can help lift the morale of a community and usher in change.

"There's so much more to it than pretty," she said. "Any career can be just a paycheck, or you can really help people."

The book Design Like You Give a Damn has greatly influenced her philosophy. The 336-page book, edited by Architecture for Humanity, showcases more than 80 architectural responses to humanitarian crises. Much of it was compiled by Lundberg's hero, Cameron Sinclair, the architect who established the non-profit organization.

Lundberg, a Utah State University interior design senior, recently returned from a week-long conference in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar, where she and her design partner, Jennifer Blackburn, received international recognition for their "Building One World" project. They designed a multi-function community for slum neighborhoods.

The Tasmeem Doha 2008 Student Design Competition, "Give Me Shelter," asked participants to think beyond the obvious solution of designing a dwelling, according to the Web site, tasmeem.qatar.vcu.edu.

Lundberg said the project was intimidating. "How can we solve the world's biggest problem?" she thought. "You can't just build a billion houses."

She said she found great inspiration in a quote from the Architecture for Humanity book:

"When a new, planned building rises in the slum -- be it a public toilet or a sewing co-operative -- it immediately becomes a monument. It was conceived by an architect, it indicates things are changing." (Architect Jorge Mario Jauregui, quoted in Design Like You Give a Damn.)

A 'Mind-Altering' Change

Lundberg said, "I thought, 'Well, let's build something for them that will change their mindset. . . . The change needed to be mind-altering so it wouldn't just be a temporary fix."

And the idea of the community center was born. The building would have several functions. First of all, it would serve as a recycling station. Encouraging citizens to get trash off the street not only cleans up the slums, but also decreases disease, Lundberg said.

Individuals who brought in garbage would be rewarded with jugs of fresh, clean water. While there, they would also be educated in basic sanitation such as hand-washing, not letting animals sleep with children and separating sewage and food.

During the evenings, the building would be used for community events. This could promote respect and unity. In the case of an emergency, it could be converted into disaster relief shelter. There are built-in showers in the bathrooms and stove tops to boil water, Lundberg said.

The center also would have a work station to give people financial opportunities. Employees would make "charms" out of the bottles brought to be recycled.

"We wanted to take a negative and turn it into a positive," she said.

Lundberg's sociology professor suggested she make some of the charms now. About a dozen students came to help, and in four sessions, they made about 80 charms.

Miraculously no one was hurt as the group gathered in a classroom to fire up a diamond-bit grinder to cut glass bottle necks. The top half-inch of the bottle is cut off and then smoothed and polished with sandpaper. The volunteers did everything by hand, but Lundberg would want machinery for the community center because they are safer.

Charms for Homes

The charms can be worn as a ring, put on a necklace, or used as a key chain. The colors range from 7UP bottle green to Coke brown. Charms were sold at $5 each and proceeds were given to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Lundberg said.

With one charm packed in her luggage, Lundberg left with Blackburn for the conference in Qatar on Feb. 28. Ten time zones later, they arrived in the nation's capital, Doha. The dusty city of more than 300,000 people is growing rapidly and needs innovative planning to accommodate the population.

The conference was at Virginia Commonwealth University's branch in Qatar. Five winners were selected of the 90 entries from 11 countries. For the first few days, the winners (three Americans, one Lebanese and one Pakistani) were put in groups with students and a field expert to work on charettes, which are intense three-day projects. Lundberg's group dealt with transportation issues in Doha, a city which is not pedestrian friendly.

She described the scene of people crossing the streets and highways as a live game of Frogger. People do not yield to pedestrians and the driving is "insane."

"I swear they just hand out driver's licenses at the airport," she said.

Her group focused on developing a color-coded bus system to help people get around safely. Doha has thousands of immigrants, and colors are a language everyone can understand, she said. During the rest of the week, the groups presented their projects and listened to lectures from acclaimed field experts. One of Lundberg's favorite things about the conference was the approachability of the experts.

"You could just walk up and talk to them," she said.

There was also a little time for Lundberg and her husband to sight-see. They went to the Souq, the local marketplace, every evening. Russell rode a camel and held a falcon. Lundberg didn't dare, but she did get temporary henna tattoos on her hands and feet. The couple also took a "terrifying" taxi, but once was enough.

Throughout the week, the students were spoiled with buffets.

"They fed us constantly," Lundberg said. "I was never hungry while I was there."

She remembers the heavenly beverages. Her favorite was a layered juice drink with strawberries, avocado and mango. "It was the most delicious drink of my life," she said. She and her husband tried to replicate the juices at home, but failed.

Russell has been very supportive and patient, said Lundberg. He also takes interest in design and often helps with projects. "Even though he's not a trained designer, he has good intuition," she said.

He gets especially excited when she designs furniture.

"Sometimes we have different ideas so he'll design one of his own while I work on mine," she said, smiling.

When interior design majors are assigned to design a piece of furniture, they must make an actual miniature model with the correct proportions and even the intended fabric. Lundberg's desk is littered with Barbie-sized chairs hiding among fabric samples, Sherwood Williams paint color guides, and a large sheet of paper with a dozen of her elegant signatures curling across the page.

Also on her desk are four expensive candles ($48 each) she purchased wholesale ($24 each) while she interned with icon designer Barbara Barry last summer. Lundberg also had the opportunity to buy a china cabinet for $4,000 instead of the retail price of $8,000, but it was still too pricey.

Barry is a high-end residential designer based in Los Angeles. She has her own line of furniture, fabric, rugs and china. She does not accept interns. Well, she didn't.

Even though the company did not have a program, Lundberg sent a resume and a letter expressing her desire to intern there, and she was accepted.

An Internship of Historical Significance

Darrin Brooks, the assistant rofessor of the USU interior design program, told Lundberg, "Your internship is going to go down in history at this school."

The experience was ideal for Lundberg. The firm is small enough that she got lots of invaluable one-on-one time with professionals. Her two culminating projects were to design a china pattern she called "Blossom," which will soon be sold at Bloomingdale's, and to help design the 2008 Henredon Furniture Showroom. On the second project, she worked with "brilliant" interior architect Ryan Koultis.

"He spent time explaining to me how he thinks about solving problems. It changed the way I look at a project or a problem," she said. "Design is really just a series of problem solving." Barry said she would have hired Lundberg, but permanent residence in Los Angeles was not appealing to the intern. The city is just too crowded for her. "It's like Christmas shopping every day," Lundberg said.

However, Lundberg is interested in England. After graduation in May, she said her decision where to live is between two places: Salt Lake City and London. She first visited the European metropolis on an interior design study abroad the summer of 2006. But London would be a temporary destination rather than long term, she said.

One day, Lundberg will settle down and buy a home of her own to decorate. "Everyone thinks I must have the coolest house, but I don't have any money," she said.

However, her cat, Gus, enjoys their current home. Lundberg designed five special carpeted shelves, which she groups on the wall for her cat's "vertical play." They give him a nice view out the window and sometimes he sleeps on them as well. Design and space impact him just as they do a person, she said.

"Space affects the way you feel," she said. "It can make you think, it can make you curious about life…You can be different after being in that space."

Lundberg tries to incorporate the physical impact with the emotional. She recently received an award from IDEC, the International Design Education Council. The project was to create a house for a long, skinny plot that one would find in a low-income housing zone. She and her team decided to design the home with a roof-top garden so families could sustain themselves and also have the positive mental influence of plants and gardening. The recurring theme of their project was, "It's about the people inside the building."

Despite her already full schedule, demonstrated by the miniature calendar scribbled with pink and purple pen she carries in her school bag, Lundberg also teaches interior design twice a week to third-graders at Millville Elementary.

It is easy to get overwhelmed if you look at all you have to do, she said.

"I used to freak out and have panic attacks, but now I just do what I can today, and then tomorrow, I do tomorrow," she said, adding that it was not uncommon for the women and men in the interior design department to have occasional break downs.

Students have even spent the night at the studio, Lundberg said. Her husband bought a massager for her chair because she passes so many hours in it. The door has a coded key pad entry so students can come at any hour of the day or night.

"So how much time do you spend at the studio?"

She laughs.

"Too damn much!"

For more information, visit buidingoneworld.org.

The Interior Design Senior Exhibit will be displayed in the Twain Tibbets Gallery in the Chase Fine Arts Center from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday through April 18. Along with fellow seniors, Lundberg's work from throughout her university career will be displayed .

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