Which school should lead in integrating public service in its undergraduate courses but the public service university itself, UP? UP’s Interior Design program is a trailblazer. Since more than 15 years ago, it has left the studio for its application course in order to embrace public service, an initiative that has given its students an edge over others.
In an era of soul-searching in UP in the early 1990s, the Interior Design (ID) program saw an opportunity to turn ID’s elitist image around. It started with an insight. To Interior Design Professor Adelaida Mayo, ID should be seen in the context of basic needs. “There’s food, clothing, and shelter. Architecture deals with shelter, but where is its soul? It’s in the space people use. It’s inside. The shelter will just be the shell of it,” Mayo concluded.
