Interior Design

Areas of Research

The idea of delineating curricular advances in design education practices guides my research. I am interested in exploring how new digital media tools can positively affect the design process. The design process is an excellent example of creative thinking used to solve wicked problems present in all Social Sciences. Since the 1960s, research has focused on how the design process unfolds and the influence that traditional design tools have in that process. Physical manipulations through sketching and model making are critical elements in moving the design process forward. However, new digital tools are displacing these practices, and current design students are shifting their approach. This shift opens a gap, and the way we teach design must adapt to this new reality. To address this gap, I have focused my research on cognitive load theory. Through the combination of psychometric and physiological tools, I can analyze cognitive demand and cognitive workload quantitatively. Moreover, this approach transcends the boundaries of the design discipline and opens opportunities for multidisciplinary research.

What I Teach

I believe learning is a never-ending process, and as individuals, we should continue to learn for our whole lives. Like learning, design activity is a never-ending process where a designer’s final idea will be the starting point for another design. In my class, students will develop design proposals through collaborative teamwork. This approach allows students to experience firsthand the iterative aspect of design, the relevance of team collaboration, and understand design solutions as live outcomes to reimagine repeatedly. My teaching expertise of more than fifteen years with undergraduate design students relies on studio techniques. I believe design students learn through direct manipulation and master-apprentice guidance. At UF, I intend to enlighten students through my studio courses and mixed reality digital tools. Moreover, I hope my expertise in product development and background as an industrial designer can give Interior Design students a different approach to the design process.

My Educational Background

Originally from Colombia, I am an Industrial Designer with a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University in Design, Housing and Merchandising, and a master’s degree in Design and Product Development in Barcelona, Spain. I have broad teaching experience with undergraduate|graduate design students, and over ten of those years, I was Head for the Industrial Design Program at a Colombian university. To fulfill my education and widen my professional development, I have moved from Colombia in South America to Spain in Europe and now to the United States. I believe my international background has been critical to developing my aesthetic sensibility and multicultural understanding. Like any discipline with high symbolic and interpretative attributes, design discipline is about exploring perspectives and re-shaping the world.

Professor Rengel holds a Master in Interior Architecture degree from the University of Oregon and a Master of Architecture from Tulane University. He has worked for some of the most influential Interior Architecture firms in the United States including Gensler in California, and ASD in Florida. He transitioned to academia and spent 23 years at the University of Wisconsin – Madison before joining the University of Florida as professor and chair of the Department of Interior Design.

Professor Rengel’s research has focused on architectural interior space as well as the interaction between interior and exterior spaces and the application of biophilic principles to the design of interior environments. He has published two books, Shaping Interior Space and The Interior Plan.

Most of Rengel’s studio teaching has been in upper level studios focused on the workplace, hospitality, and educational environments. At the graduate level, he has taught the course Placemaking, focused on the principles and processes of creating environments with a strong sense of place.

Genesis Okken, NCIDQ received both her Bachelor of Design and Master of Interior Design at the University of Florida. While completing her graduate work, she served as an editorial assistant for the Journal of Interior Design as well as gained design experience at Sarah Cain Design.  She then went on to practice design at Walt Disney Imagineering and the Kessler Collection in Orlando, FL before returning to UF as a lecturer in the Department of Interior Design.    

Her research interests include exploring how design practitioners develop appropriate color designs across different market sectors and how color planning strategies evolve throughout an individuals’ career. Specifically, she has explored color planning and design within corporate office, healthcare, hospitality, residential and pop-up retail using qualitative methods. She also investigates how professional practice can inform better ways to incorporate critical color knowledge and understanding into design pedagogy.   

Genesis enjoys mentoring students through independent studies in color theory and undergraduate research projects as well as through her role as the faculty advisor for the UF ASID/IIDA student chapter.  She also has taught a wide spectrum of courses within the program including Design Innovation, Interior Design Communication Systems, Computer Applications for 3D Design, Professional Practice of Interior Design, Design Field Experience, Architectural Interiors II, and Advanced Architectural Interiors II. For students in the summer program, she teaches Design Innovation and History of Interior Design I.  

Erin Cunningham’s research examines intersections between social justice and the interior environment. Her scholarship, published in both peer-reviewed articles and invited chapters, can be broken down into three main categories. The first examines the history and preservation of the interior environment. The second examines the development of social welfare priorities in interior design. The third, and newly emerging track, examines issues of health in the lived environment. Across these topics, Erin takes a social historical approach to the study of interiors, emphasizing issues of gender, race, and class.

One of Erin’s principal responsibilities at the University of Florida is to teach the History of Interior Design, which is a two-part required sequence. Since taking responsibility for these courses she has worked to break the strict lecture style of the course, engaging students in multiple formats, including lecture, class discussion, and digital humanities methods. Alongside her history courses, she teaches interior design studio at all levels, from sophomore to senior. These studios have touched on a range of topics, including hospitality, corporate design, and housing.

With a doctoral degree in Design, Construction in Planning, a certificate in historic preservation, a professional master’s degree in interior design, and a Bachelor of Arts, Erin’s educational background is diverse, and interdisciplinary. Prior to joining the Interior Design Department at the University of Florida, she was a faculty member in the Interior Architecture Program at the University of Oregon.

Shabboo Valipoor, Ph.D., EDAC, is an assistant professor of Interior Design at the College of Design, Construction and Planning. The focus of her research is on the impact of the built environment on human health and safety, particularly in the context of healthcare facilities and environments for aging and disabilities. She is currently working on projects that aim to (1) improve the quality of care in acute care settings by providing supportive environments for healthcare professionals and (2) minimize environmental risks to independent living for older adults with age-associated impairments. She has collaborated with scholars across disciplines on projects supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Science Foundation, Academy of Architecture for Health, and the American Society of Interior Designers. Her current teaching focuses on inclusive design in the built environment, healthcare design, and computer applications.

Jason Meneely is an Associate Professor in the Department of Interior Design at the University of Florida. He joined the department in 2006 from Cornell University where he worked as a researcher in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis. Meneely’s research examines strategies for maximizing creativity, human potential, and social engagement through the design of the built environment.  He also examines values-driven approaches to technology that support human-centered design processes.

In 2019 Meneely received a national Award for Excellence from the Council of Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) for developing innovative approaches that leveraged virtual-reality headsets to support inclusive design decisions for people with disabilities. He also received the 2012 Innovation in Education Award from CIDA and was recently honored with a UF Term Professorship (2018-2021). He and his collaborators have received a national Research Excellence Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (2018) and Best Presentation awards at the UB Tech (2013), and the Interior Design Educators Council (2004 and 2002) annual conferences. His research has been published in the Creativity Research Journal and the Journal of Interior Design.

Research

• The application of Virtual Reality to human-centered design issues
• Design strategies for enhancing creative performance in individuals, teams, and organizations.
• Using technology to support creative problem solving
• Design thinking and pedagogy

Teaching Focus

• Upper-Division Interior Design Studios (including education, corporate, retail, and hospitality markets).
• Graduate Seminar in Creativity Research
• Digital Design Communication Methods

Dr. Sheila Bosch is an associate professor and graduate coordinator for the Department of Interior Design. For more than two decades, Sheila has been engaged in research exploring the relationships between environmental design and human well-being, primarily in healthcare and educational environments. Healthcare design research has investigated environments serving patients of all ages, from birth to the very end of life, including intensive care units, medical-surgical units, emergency departments, behavioral health units and skilled nursing facilities. In 2014, Sheila was honored to receive the national-level HCD10 top researcher award for her contributions to healthcare design research. Her current research focuses on how the design of healthcare spaces may help reduce stress and support mindfulness among healthcare workers. Research on learning environment design has included investigations in both K-12 and higher education environments, including an externally funded investigation of mixed-use learning environments at the university level. Sheila teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, all of which include a research component. For undergraduates, she regularly team-teaches a senior design studio in which students develop innovative healthcare spaces, oftentimes working with design practitioners. Sheila also teaches both undergraduate and graduate level environment-behavior courses where students explore the complex relationships between the environment (built or natural) and the people who occupy those environments. Other graduate courses taught include Readings in Design Studies and Research Methods in Interior Design. Prior to UF, Sheila served as the Director of Research for Gresham Smith, a global design firm headquartered in the southeastern US. Having earned her PhD in 2004 from Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, Sheila also hold an MS (life science, environmental toxicology) and a BS (science education), both from the University of Tennessee.