Contact: Addison Arledge
STARKVILLE, Miss.— Mississippi State University interior design senior Martina R. Walker of Clinton recently was selected as a semi-finalist in the fourth annual Steelcase NEXT Competition.
Out of nearly 800 entries and 65 design programs, Walker was chosen as one of just five semi-finalists. In addition to MSU, honorees represented Virginia Tech University, California State University, University of Minnesota, and Purdue University.
This year, the Steelcase NEXT Competition was a project for the Los Angeles, California-based design studio, NEXT. Competitors were given an existing building shell and asked to use research-based design to develop a concept that could be implemented into the allotted space using Steelcase furniture.
“My concept was inspired by a terrarium, which is essentially a miniature ecosystem within a container,” Walker explained.
She compared the ecosystem of the terrarium and its relationship between organism and resource to the workplace.
On Monday [Feb. 6], the semi-finalists will be flown to Steelcase headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They will present their projects to a panel of professional judges, who will select an overall winner.
The winner will receive a grand prize of $2,500, as well as a $2,500 contribution to their school’s design program or the charity of their choice.
Founded in 1912, Steelcase Inc. offers architecture, furniture, and technology products and services in order to turn insight into innovation. For more information about Steelcase, visit www.steelcase.com.
Accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, MSU’s interior design curriculum provides a broad background in interior elements, materials, sources and practical experiences. For more information, contact professor and program director Beth Miller at 662-325-7689 or BMiller@caad.msstate.edu.
Learn more about the College of Architecture, Art and Design and its interior design program at www.caad.msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.