Photo Provided

While many students at OU are busy studying for final exams or diligently footnoting final papers, some are constructing intricate models.

The final project for interior design students in Design and Graphics III is to build the interior of a dentist’s office. The undergraduates are building a 3-D model for the first time, which they will present to a professional architect based in Oklahoma City.

“It’s the real deal,” junior Caitlin Rodgers said. “It’s real because it’s drawn to scale and it meets the design code. We have researched real furniture that can go inside. I have real samples of the fabric, floorings, tiles and all that jazz.”

According to OU’s interior design student handbook, interior design combines creative and technical solutions to build an interior environment.

“These solutions are functional, enhance the quality of life and culture of the occupants, and are aesthetically attractive,” the handbook states.

Before students began designing, they considered the project’s requirements, such as the dentist’s interests and location.

“We met the dentist who we’re designing for and got to tour his local office for design ideas,” Rodgers said. “His taste is expensive.”

Students are assigned to design a dentist’s office in La Jolla, Calif. — the most expensive real estate market in the U.S., according to a press release from Coldwell Banker, a real estate sales company.

While students were given a $5,000 budget for their last project, they don’t have any price restrictions this time.

“These are always the more fun projects because you can be as creative as you want to,” Rodgers said.

Money may not be an object for this project, but other things can be.

“Sometimes you don’t have enough time to use all the creative ideas you have, so you kind of have to pick and choose what ideas you use,” Rodgers said.

Sophomore Megan Lewis said time commitment is the biggest factor with this project.

“[Caitlin and I] worked 36 hours this past weekend, then the time we spend in studio is 10 hours a week,” Lewis said. “So I’d say I’ll probably spend 200 hours total on this project when it’s all said and done. That’s ridiculous, now that I think of it.”

OU students are expected to devote three hours of outside preparation for each hour of lecture, according to the OU College of Architecture’s student handbook. According to the handbook, this expectation is further expanded for students in studio.

“Ideally, if we were to work on these for a few hours everyday, we’d be fine,” Lewis said. “But we have other classes too, like macroeconomics and archaeology.”

Lewis said that while working on her previous project, she took three hours of sleep in 36 hours.

“My mom was concerned for my health,” Lewis said. “I’m for sure getting some sort of sleep before tomorrow — hopefully.”

Sleep deprivation isn’t the only health issue interior design students might be faced with. While cutting out part of her model, Rodgers sliced her thumb open with an Exacto knife.

“Got some blood on my baby blue walls,” Rodgers said, laughing. “I put my blood and sweat into this project because that’s the kind of worker I am.”

Despite injuries and sleepless nights, Lewis and Rodgers have developed a strong friendship through countless hours of working on studio projects together.

“We wouldn’t be friends if it weren’t for studio,” Lewis said. “We wouldn’t know that we have so many things in common.”