Artist Statement
Residential design has always been a passion of mine. Having started my career in advertising in NYC I soon segued to residential design. I knew I wanted experience in the field before staying home and starting my family. After my family was settled, I was eager to get back into design but knew the industry had changed drastically and that I needed training and education. Getting a Master’s of Interior Architecture at the Van Loan School is fast tracking me to my goal of eventually starting my own design firm. Over the past four years not only have I immersed myself in interior architecture, I have had opportunities to travel abroad to study cutting edge design and to enter in the Boston Design Center’s Heading Home to Dinner event where I was recognized by Architectural Digest. While studying my Masters I have been exposed to new thinking in design such as interior design can heal a human condition. Both my children are the inspiration for my thesis.
Thesis Abstract
The design of a teen after school center can alleviate ADHD symptoms in teens with ADHD allowing them to complete academic tasks before returning to their home environment. This will be achieved by providing spaces with structures that fit individual sensory needs, areas of refuge and outlets for their energy through the feeling of an infinite embrace. ADHD is a neurological condition which makes it challenging to learn in an academic environment. There has also been an increased amount of homework in the past several decades putting a stronger demand on teens with ADHD to get through the school day and recharge to complete the needed homework each day. This often disrupts the family in the home environment. Teens diagnosed with ADHD receive 20K more negative massages about their sense of self by age 12 putting them at an increased risk for substance abuse and low self-esteem. ADHD user’s central nervous systems crave pressure and joint feedback to center and focus. It is important to create interior space that emulates the feeling of emotional release from a maternal hug which is why I used the photograph with my son taken from a bird’s eye view with messy hair and a warm hug from mother to son. ADHD teen also need a place where their oppositional defiance and excessive energy is understood and welcomed.