GCA assistant to the directors Camille Germany (C) recently sat down with new OU Interior Design faculty member Negar Matin (N), to discuss her career in the interior design field and her goals at Gibbs! Read on for highlights, or click the link below to access the full podcast.
C: Welcome back to the Gibbs Spotlight, I’m Camille Germany, assistant to the directors at the Gibbs College of Architecture. Talking with me today is Negar Matin. Negar is a new assistant professor this fall in interior design. She holds a PhD from the Building Science and Interior Design program at Eastern Michigan University and her research focus is on the responsive facade system and its impacts. Hi Negar. I’m so glad you could join me today.
N: Hi Camille, thank you so much for having me!
C: Yeah of course! Could you talk a little bit about your journey to where you are today from when you decided to pursue an interior design degree to finding this assistant professorship here at the Gibbs College of Architecture and why you’re excited to join the college?
N: Sure. As you know, interior designers pay attention to details and they know how to mix different details to create a delightful, comfortable and safe environment. When I was an undergraduate student in any design studio that I had, I was extremely interested in creating and combining different details. I imagined the interior of every design space and I tried to draw different interior perspectives to understand the shape and taste of interior spaces from various points of view. I can say this was the beginning of my interest in interior architecture. And, you know, due to my passion for studying symbolism and exploring hidden meaning in contemporary architecture, I followed the latest architecture projects or events, I mean any events related to monuments and memorial architecture. First, I think first, I became interested in Gibbs College of Architecture when a symposium after trauma and memory, held at the University of Oklahoma a few years ago, and at that time, I was a graduate student working on my master thesis, which was about syntactic and semantic aspects of monumental and memorial architecture. I just wished to be a presenter in this symposium and share my research with various experts in this field, but at that time, no honestly, I never imagined one day I would join the Gibbs College of Architecture as an assistant professor. You know, existing different divisions at Gibbs College of Architecture with high research and teaching activities at an R1 university, like the University of Oklahoma, interested me the most. Since I believe in research as a systematic inquiry directed from interdisciplinary collaboration between different disciplines, for sure being at Gibbs College of Architecture can provide me an opportunity for integrating ideas and attitudes and sharing tools and thinking critically to develop new knowledge and products and also solve challenging practical problems in the field of interior design.
C: I’d also love to hear about one or two projects that you’re either currently working on or have recently completed.
N: After joining the Ph.D. program at the college of engineering and technology at Eastern Michigan University, I had this chance to work in the interdisciplinary environment and I was asked to define my main Ph.D. project in the middle of the triangle of technology, interior design and building science. And among hi-tech building elements, for the last 5 years, I have been focused on responsive facade systems and its impact on interior spaces. As a high-performance building system, responsive facade is capable of interacting with the natural environment which provides maximum comfort, health and well-being for occupants inside the building. So, I was carrying out research in user-visual comfort provided by responsive facade and this research project required to address a variety of issues in technology, including the intersection of values field, such as controlled technology, mathematical modeling, daylight design as well as deploying state-of-the-art optimization methods in data analytics. In 2019, as a lead G.A. who is fascinated by design and research on sustainable habitations, as a student team leader under supervision of my Ph.D. advisor, professor Shinming Shyu, put together a sustainable design team at Eastern Michigan University and we participated in 2019’s solar decathlon design competition held annually by the Department of Energy. As a student team leader of this project, I have used various opportunities available to grow my leadership skills, as I communicated effectively with the team members and professionals and industry communities. And also, I have been involved in conducting the preparation process for grant applications and my excellent performance and also my passion for designing and conducting research led me to be invited as a co-leader of a sustainable grant application that has been accepted by the Michigan Energy Office. Due to implementing advanced technology in the design of a single-family house, our team at EMU received a Rockstar Rookie Award at that competition, and, you know, as my first leadership experience, it brought me a sense of pride!
C: Sure, that’s awesome! Congratulations!
N: Thank you so much!
C: So what’s your favorite thing about the career path you chose and how does your research and work advance the field and development of future interior designers?
N: I love being in academia, not only because of research activity, but also because of identifying outstanding students and mentoring the next generation of designer and researcher from different, you know, cultures and from different nations with different abilities who will form our future habitations. So, I think the present of being in academia is educating students and inspiring from them, for sure. And this means to have indirect influence in building a future world and all of these things make me feel proud! And you know, the complicity of problems that interior design disciplines seek to answer in the contemporary world creates a need to expand the existing boundaries of knowledge within the discipline. Using an interdisciplinary vision, I will continue to research the implementation of advanced technology in order to enhance the quality of life in interior spaces; and my goal is to continue producing original and creative work, creating platforms to separate knowledge and spread knowledge. The complicity of problems that interior design disciplines seek to answer in the contemporary world creates a need to expand existing boundaries of knowledge between disciplines and using an interdisciplinary vision, I will continue to research the implementation of advanced technology in order to enhance the quality of life in interior spaces. My goal is to continue producing original and creative work and creating platforms to distribute knowledge and promoting dialogue between interior design, building science, and also advanced technology to my research. My portfolio demonstrates the continuity of my collaboration with different experts from the vast domain of knowledge, such as computer scientists, mechanical and electrical engineers, and also material scientists. You know, these intellectual efforts provide an opportunity for me and, for sure, for my students to develop the future of the interior design field, here, at Gibbs College of Architecture.
C: I’m excited to see those collaborations, both for our students and our faculty, that’s gonna be awesome. So what do you want alumni and future interior designers to take away from your work here at the University of Oklahoma?
N: I tried to develop some frameworks to utilize data-driven solutions for interior design problems. In addition to that I am keen to find out how we can use different technology for a better understanding of occupant needs, occupant preferences and address these needs and preferences in our design when it’s possible. You know, by the way, in my point-of-view, the interior design field should not be considered as a new technology field, but technology can assist us to shed lights on some, you know, hidden aspect of design which can be revealed by advanced analytic methods and I hope I can have some useful research outputs in the area, in this area, and in this field that I mentioned before during my work at Gibbs College of Architecture for our alumni and future designers.
C: Sure, sure, yeah. What are your 5- or 10-year goals with your research and how do you imagine the discipline evolving?
N: You know, I am passionate about establishing interdisciplinary lab here at Gibbs College of Architecture, consisting of both undergraduate and graduate students and my goal is to change the current approach in interior design investigations by deploying new technology, advanced tools and software also different analytical approaches, and also different design workflows, to solve challenging problems in the field of interior design. And reaching to this goal means writing a proposal and learning from established scholars, collaborating with different researchers from different university research and institutes and, for sure, working closely with industry partners and more importantly, training, mentoring and working with fresh, talented and skilled interior design students who can change the trend of design in our future world.
C: Thank you so much Negar, we’re very excited for you to be joining the college this fall, and we can’t wait to see your work on these issues grow!
N: Thank you so much for your invitation and I am happy that we had this opportunity to speak together!
C: Yeah same! Thank you for listening to the Gibbs Spotlight. Tune in next time to hear more stories from the Gibbs College of Architecture!
Editor’s note: This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
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