For the second year running, Linden Homes Southern is linking up with Southampton Solent University to give their Interior Design Decoration students a chance to apply their skills and training to one of the building company’s show homes at St Michael’s Place in Waterlooville.
Linden Homes’ development in Waterlooville is a collection of new houses and an extraordinary refurbishment project. The old St Michael’s convent building is being converted into seventeen beautiful apartments – to be known as Claydon House. The students from Solent University will be basing their designs on artists of their choice to influence their designs of the striking two bedroom ground floor show apartment.
Once the designs have been completed, the course lecturers shall shortlist five of the best designs. Those five pupils shall be invited to ‘pitch’ their ideas to a team of judges, made up of experts from Linden Homes Southern and one of the company’s interior design partners, Claude Hooper.
Tina Chalk is the marketing manager for Linden Homes Southern:
“The show apartment is beautiful. We chose it for this project because it has so much character: It has very high, vaulted ceilings and huge stained glass windows. It will provide real food for thought for the interior design students. Hopefully the show apartment will inspire the students to think of new elements that they can weave into their designs. It will be fascinating to see what they come up with.”
To really understand the brief, the 35 students from Solent University were invited to visit Claydon House at St Michael’s Place this month to get a feel for the development and the type of market this type of property appeals to. Based on this session, the pupils will now spend time coming up with some concepts for their designs.
Glenda Strong, senior lecturer at Solent University explained: “This project was such a success last year that we were really keen to work with Linden Homes Southern again. This year we have asked the students to base their concepts on artists of their choice, so we are really excited to see what they come up with and how those influences come through in their designs. Seeing the apartment for themselves gives the students some great inspiration for working up their mood boards. Wherever possible we are always looking for ways to give our students real-life experiences and this is a great project that puts them in the shoes of an interior designer.”
Bronwyn Wotherspoon, 20 from Emsworth is one of the pupils on the Interior Design Decoration course. She found the visit to St Michael’s Place really inspiring: “I have chosen Jack Vettriano, who did ‘The Singing Butler’ as one of my artists for the project. People feel real emotion in this artist’s work so I want people to feel that through my designs. Having looked at the floorplans, coming here and seeing it in person has really helped make sense of the drawings. Although we knew the windows were large, you really can’t take that in on the page – seeing it in real-life, really helps! The windows are huge and so beautiful! The most challenging thing I’m finding is creating something that will have mass appeal. I’m really excited about the prospect of being able to present our ideas to the Linden Homes team and representatives from the interior design company – this will give us some really good practice at presenting and experiencing what it’s like in the working world!”
Lee Puddicombe, 20 from Gosport is finding the course really rewarding, allowing him to bring out his creative flair: “I absolutely love the course. I have always been into art since I was really young so this really allows me to express my creative side. I have been researching Van Gogh and Piet Mondrian as my artistic influences. Mondrian is all about primary colours which now having seen the apartment, I may change my ideas to suit the space and make it a little warmer. I really feel as though I have found my place and this is definitely the career path I want to take. Having this experience really allows us to see what it’s like in the industry, and I’m so keen to get as much work experience as I can.”
For more information on the Claydon House apartments at St Michael’s Place, please visit the Linden Homes’ website. Alternatively you can call 0844 488 3005 for more details.
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Media can contact Claire Cathersides or Emma Cox at Remarkable Group on 01962 893893 for more information, images and interviews with Linden Homes.
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