UPH?s Interior Design Department once again earned prestigious achievements in national and international competitions.
UPH?s Interior Design Department once again earned prestigious achievements in national and international competitions. 
UPH Interior Design students Kevin Elika, Fransiska Tiffany, Valentine Kurniawan, who got prestigious achievements with Mr. Martin Katoppo, the Head of Interior Deisgn Department
UPH?s Interior Design Department once again earned prestigious achievements in national and international competitions. Kevin Alika (Interior Design 2010 student) became the Runner-Up in A? Design Award and Competition, which was held in Italy. Three other students, Valentine Kurniawan, Janetta Indrayani, and Fransiska Tiffany, also won as the first, second, and third winners in ?Decoding Design in Traditional Culture Heritage? competition held in UPH, in cooperation with Living Etc magazine and Domus Design School Italy.
A? Design Award and Competitions was a prestigious annual international competition based in Italy, which highlighted the best design works from all over the world. Kevin said that he was not confident enough at first to participate in this competition. ?There was my furniture lecture, Mr. Yahya, who encouraged me. Mr. Yahya said that my work could be participated in a competition and it had potential to win. Then I tried to apply my work to a competition, and finally I did it?, Kevin explained. Kevin works that awarded as the Runner-Up were floating chair and penetrating lounge chair. Kevin also had earned an achievement before in International Furniture Award in Indonesia, where him as a university student, applied his work to professional category and went to top 15.
Kevin’s works, penetrating lounge chair and floating chair, shown at Broletto di Como, Piazza Del Duomo, Italy
Three other UPH Interior Design students, Valentine Kurniawan (2009), Janetta Indrayani (2010), and Fransiska Tiffany (2010) also captivated the judges with their works. ?In One Day Deisgn School workshop and competition, we invited interior design students from other universities, such as Tarumanegara University, Binus University, Lasalle College, Raffles Design School, and Traisakti Universoty, with about 200 participants. After workshop then it came to the competition themed ?Decoding Design in Traditional Culture Heritage? where the participants were asked to bring the cultural material they wanted to transform into a design?, said Martin Luqman Katoppo, ST, MT, as the Head of Interior Design Department UPH.
In that competition, Valentine Kurniawan succeeded to win the first place, followed by Janetta Indrayani in the second place, and Fransiska Tiffany in the third place. As the first winner, Valentine Kurniawan got a chance to join 2 Weeks Summer School in Domus Design School, Italy. She will be leaving on this Sunday, July 22 2012. The lecturers in UPH also supported the students to actively participating in competitions. ?Whenever I need encouragement, the lecturers must be there to help me, though something that I consulted was not the lecture that they taught?, Kevin added. Valentine and Fransiska also admitted that they were not confident enough to join the competition, but the kept supporting them to be more active, so they tried and finally they did it.
Certificates they got from winning the prestigious competitions
The achievements earned by these students are certainly cannot be separated from learning process they got while studying in UPH. ?Interior Design Department has a mission to build graduates who have innovation in profession; therefore we give a tougher challenge to the students through harder material than other universities give to their students. We educate our students hardly about concept, where the design may not come first before the concept is good enough?, Martin Katoppo said. This aims to build excellent graduates in industrial world, but apparently, they have earned achievements before they are graduated.
According to the judges from Domus Design School, 3 works from 3 UPH students understood what they wanted and gave them what they asked, which was a design interpretation from traditional to modern, where traditional culture itself was no longer looked traditional, but behind that there was a concept why it was traditional.
Besides that learning method, Interior Design Department also cooperates with various institutions, such as HDII (Himpunan Designer Interior Indonesia) and industrial institutions. ?In bridging over academic field and profession field, UPH is trying to cooperate with HDII by giving associated certification. We are discussing about this, so our students can get the associated certification by adding one more year learning period, so after they are graduated, they can directly practice as a professional and certified interior designer?, Martin Katoppo explained. Meanwhile, with the industrial institutions, UPH has cooperated with various interior material suppliers, where at least, there are 12 manufacturers who will be participated in UPH Design Week by showing their products. (ft)
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