SCE Students Design and Install Temporary Environment for White House Design Education Event
In creating the White House installation, students manipulated pages from used books to create many different forms and effects. Image: Jonsara Ruth.
On October 8, a delegation of 31 students, as well as distinguished alumni, faculty and leaders from The New School’s Parsons School of Design were on site at the White House by invitation from the First Lady to take part in the first ever White House Fashion Education Workshop. In advance of the event, sixteen Parsons undergraduate and graduate had an intensive two week charette to develop a design for the event, and just a couple days to install their complex installation, which featured over thousands of pages reclaimed from hundreds of discarded books and subsequently transformed into objects at many different scales, from small fashion accessories to the large backdrop against which First Lady Michelle Obama spoke.
The 16 students came from each of the 7 graduate and undergraduate programs offered at SCE. They were led by Alison Mears, Dean of the School of Design Strategies at Parsons, Jonsara Ruth, Director, MFA Interior Design at Parsons, and stylist Helen Quinn, faculty at the School of Constructed Environments. Participating students are Sofia Burlo, Lauren Parikh, Amanda Evengård, Laura Yeh, Nelson DeJesus, Calvin Cheng, Alex Stewart, Mariam Alshamali, Mochi Liu, Julia Grunberg, Laura Suppan, Junrui Wang, Jordana Goot, James Clotfelter, Stephen Finney, and Marina Lodi Ferreira Da Cunha.
The photographs below illustrate how the students worked together to create and install their temporary environment.
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- Sofia Burlo and Amanda Evengård organize materials required for the installation
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- Students meet to discuss their action plan
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- Assembling the installation
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- Double Major Transdisciplinary Design and MFA Lighting Design student James Clotfelter at the sewing machine
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- Helen Quinn oversees the development of the temporary environment
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- Stephen Finney, Jordana Maisie Goot, Marina Lodi Ferreira Da Cunha, and Laura Yeh
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- Books with folded paper
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- More folded book designs
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- M.Architecture student Mochi Liu holds part of the cut and folded paper screen backdrop against which First Lady Obama spoke
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- Dual Degree MFA Architecture and MFA Lighting Design student Junrui Wang wears a paper hat
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- BFA Interior Design student Calvin Cheng models some paper garlands
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- Helen Quinn and Julia Grundberg installing East Room environment
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- Hat made from laser cute and folded pages from discarded books
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- An origami inspired scarf made from carefully folded pages
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- Double Major MFA Interior Design and Lighting Design student Stephen Finney and
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- Alison Mears examines table setting before
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- Part of the centerpiece displays made from folded and assembled book pages
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- Lauren Parikh attends to a centerpiece
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- Paper centerpiece on press table
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- Sofia Burlo makes final adjustments to a table setting
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- MFA Interior Design student Laura Suppan and Stephen Finney prepare the paper screen
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- Mochi Liu makes final adjustments to the cut and folded paper screen
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- Paper screen and metal lectern
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- Detail of the paper screen
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- The New School President Van Zandt with M.Architecture student Alex Stewart
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- School of Design Strategies Dean Alison Mears and Parsons Dean Joel Towers
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- MFA Interior Design Program Director Jonsara Ruth and Alison Mears
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- President David Van Zandt photographs BFA Architecture student Nelson de Jesus
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- Mochi Liu and Mariam Alshamali being interviewd by CBS News