Student Winners of Morton Kesten Universal Design Competition 2015

The auditorium lobby showcased winning designs from the 2015 Morton Kesten Universal Design Competition. On display were designs by students from across California that were submitted to a juried competition. The works used principles of universal design that support aging in place to either re-conceptualize an interior or develop a new product for use at home. This year’s first place winner was Adrian Po Villanueva, an industrial design student at California State University, Long Beach. His submission, “DAGR: Wield the Cursor,” detailed a wand-like ergonomic device to replace a typical computer mouse for users suffering from arthritis. The second place winner was a bathroom redesign made for a wheelchair user by Art Institute of California interior design student Genesis Chavez. Two projects were selected for honorable mentions: Inland Empire Art Institute student Ariella Cedillo presented “Fluidity,” a laundry machine design that automatically moves heavy, wet clothes from the wash into the dryer, utilizes pictorial and audio instructions with a touch screen, and indicates when the laundry process is complete with lights and a melody. USC School of Architecture students Yilin Ma, Yidan Hu, and Zhou Li presented the “Slide Bathroom,” an innovative design concept with an emphasis on flexible use of space that includes movable wall units and features in a grid system. For more information, visit: https://gero.usc.edu/udcompetition/.