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UF News University of Florida

UF students collaborate to enhance Architecture Building

January 16, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida students are getting the chance to use their design talent to help both themselves and future Gators.

The UF College of Design, Construction and Planning will hold a 10-hour charrette, or intensive collaborative design session, on Wednesday calling on the college’s upper division undergraduate and graduate students to design immediate improvements for the Architecture Building. The first- and second-place designs will be awarded $750 and $250, respectively, with the winning design to be implemented by the fall.

Students from the college’s disciplines housed in the Architecture Building — architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and urban and regional planning – will work together in groups of three to address one of three design problems:

  1. outdoor seating
  2. individual work stations for the building’s studios
  3. a system of banners to share information and improve the building’s visual quality

“In a time of tight budgets, we have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps,” said Peggy Carr, the college’s associate dean for undergraduate students and academic affairs. “Our talented students are sure to develop creative and cost-effective solutions to improve our learning environment.”

The charrette will begin with group registration at noon in the atrium, followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session at 1 p.m. Groups must submit their designs by 10 p.m. The designs will be judged by a panel of college faculty and students, and the winner will be announced by Jan. 30.