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Parsons Students Wow NeoCon

Laminated glass room was built with donations from Solutia and other collaborators.

Dave Platter -- Interior Design, 6/17/2004 12:00:00 AM

The 24 seniors from the interior design program at the Parsons School of Design in New York City wowed visitors to NeoCon in Chicago this week with an exhibition of work that went beyond the elevations and small models that students traditionally display.

"The idea was to have literally an experience that you stepped into," said Shashi Caan, chair of the Interior Design Department at Parsons and principal of the Shashi Caan Design Collective, who directed the student project. "Student work is usually shown in pictures or little models and the idea is difficult to experience. We tried to change the education model and build an experience."

The students' 10-by-10-foot showspace featured laminated glass with an interlay of digital images. The glass is the same as that used in the luminous entryway and glowing floor of bar and lounge areas in New York City's Hudson Hotel, designed by Philippe Starck for Ian Schrager.

In the students' project, the glass surface was folded from a bench to form the wall and ultimately the ceiling of an enclosed mini-room. Opposite the bench, flat-screen monitors displayed digital walkthroughs of other work created by the students.

"The images in the glass let us explore conceptually what is wallpaper today, what is fabric," said Caan.

To create the booth, the team used Solutia's Vanceva, a slim plastic inner layer that is even thinner than a sheet of paper. Vanceva is created by printing directly onto a plastic inner layer, then encasing that layer between two pieces of glass.

Solutia donated its time and materials to the student project, as did other collaborators, which include Arch Deco Glass of Columbus, Ohio and MTH Industries of Chicago. Caan estimated that without the generosity of the fabricators, the cost of the project could have been as high as $100,000.