De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) continues to receive recognition as six selected Benildeans from the Interior Design program joined the Asian Institute of Interior Design Association (AIDIA) International Student Workshop. A first for the Philippines to attend the said workshop, the event was held at the Faculty of Architecture, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand last January 24 to 28, 2016 with the theme “Through Asian Eyes”.

The nine other Filipino delegates from various universities were chosen and accompanied by Director of Education of Philippine Institute of Interior Designers (PIID) and chairperson of the Interior Design program of DLS-CSB, Dr. Vincent Louie Tan while the six selected Benildeans were: Mika Abad, Bia Castillo, Marella Custodio, Fay Fadul, Sharlene Lanzarrote, and Mary Montenegro. Other countries that joined the event included China, South Korea, and Thailand.

Participants from all four countries were randomly divided into 10 groups wherein they were assigned to go to different routes at Rattanakosin, a historical area of Bangkok and required to come up with a Thai inspired visual space, which would act as window displays that reveal Thai culture in the perception of fellow Asian countries. Other final requirements included: two presentation boards displaying the concept, plans, and perspectives of the visual space; a model with maximum size of 50 cm (W) x 50 cm (D) x 50 cm (H); and a 15-minute Powerpoint presentation.

This exercise intended it’s participants to come up with a design concept through their own perspective of Thailand’s culture, in combination with their own respective design styles that they brought from their own countries.

“Aside from gaining a lot of friends from other countries, it became an eye opener to me, that I have yet to see the design world. We have a small community of Interior Designers in the Philippines and it’s not everyday that we get to have a workshop like this so it made me realize that this helped us to have an edge because we learned about their design process,” said Sharlene Lanzarrote, a participant from DLS-CSB.

Lanzarrote also shared that the impact of the trip made people recognize DLS-CSB with the Interior Design program. She said that BS-IND batch 113 is the first batch to be independent from its former partner, the Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID).

Other participating schools were University of Santo Tomas, Mapua Institute of Technology, University of San Carlos (Cebu), and La Consolacion College (Bacolod).