Aisha Ballesteros, partner and project director of Latin American-based architecture firm , joins the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s School of Interior Architecture faculty this fall as the school’s first female visiting professor.

She graduated from Ibero-American University with her degree in architecture in 2000, and later received a master’s in 21st century housing from Ibero-American University and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. She joined the JSa team in 2007, and after four years, was appointed partner.

Alongside firm founder and principal Javier ��á�Գ����� and partner Benedikt Fahlbusch, Ballesteros has led cultural projects such as the Carlos Monsiváis Personal Library within the José Vasconcelos’ Mexican Library and the Juan Soriano Contemporary Art Museum in the state of Morelos, Mexico.

Her projects have garnered recognitions including the silver medal at the Architecture Biennial of Mexico City (2013) for the Carlos Monsiváis Personal Library; the gold medal at the National Biennial of Mexican Architecture (2020) and the gold medal at the Architecture Biennial of Mexico City (2019), both for the Juan Soriano Contemporary Art Museum.

Through the firm’s projects in Mexico’s gastronomic and hospitality scene, such as Pujol, Criollo, Ticuchi and Salón Rosetta, Ballesteros began incorporating interior architecture into JSa’s practice.

“Aisha’s level of detailed attention elevates the experience of a space,” said Milagros Zingoni, director of the school, who was introduced to Ballesteros and ��á�Գ�����, who serves as the college’s 2024 BarberMcMurry Endowed Professor, after visiting his architecture firm, which is housed in a former ice factory in Mexico City.

“Today, ‘The Ice Factory’ is a 100 percent self-sustained space that does not use city infrastructure, not even sewage and water,” said Zingoni. “I saw their firm as a laboratory that is pushing new solutions to today’s problems, and that’s what we do as a school.”

��á�Գ����� was invited to campus in 2023 for a school ONE community lecture on JSa’s approach to architecture and interior architecture, which garnered the City of Knoxville’s attention. That visit led to continued connections between JSa and UT.

“We use the same point of view that we develop the architecture, only it is towards the small details and integrating the interior architecture into the general perspective of the project,” Ballesteros said. “We say we do interior architecture because the decision we make for the interior, impacts the exterior. We change the building or the design to enhance the experience of a space.”

This semester, Ballesteros is teaching in parallel with ��á�Գ�����.

Ballesteros will continue the practice of melding the exterior with the interior as she works with second-year interior architecture students on the historic Southern Railway Station, two buildings which the university has acquired to support the college’s plan for expansion. The former railway complex was built in 1903 to serve the economic development of East Tennessee. Acquisition of the station offers the college the opportunity to engage with the Downtown Knoxville community and increase its enrollment size.

Ballesteros and her students have researched the buildings’ history and set intentions they wish a visitor to have while in their future space.

“What we have learned is that our projects can produce hospitality and make the people feel welcomed and have experiences instead of just using the buildings,” she said. “In our practice, we say that we design experiences, not just the spaces, and it’s what we want the students to understand.”

“They have to feel the intentions they want to provoke, then they can start designing the building,” she said. “It is really important to understand what experience we would like to achieve at the end.”

Following ��á�Գ�����’s visit to campus, he and Ballesteros began planning an immersive interior architecture trip for fourth-year students earlier this year. Assistant Professor Hojung Kim and former Visiting Professor David Barragán spent a week learning how Mexican designers and artisans are approaching interiors work.

Students were able to see how collaboration with artisans enhances the interior experiences of Ballesteros’ projects.

“We are transferring what we are used to doing in our practice to school,” said Ballesteros. “Javier, and I decided that coming together and having a connection between Mexico and this university makes us really proud and excited for the future collaborations that will come from it.”

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In 1996, ��á�Գ����� founded JSa, a leading architecture practice in the renewal of the Mexico City, with more than 70 employees and offices in Mexico and Peru. The firm is well known for their comprehensive architectural interventions that rehabilitate and restore the urban fabric. They have designed and built over 180 projects in Mexico, South America and Europe.

In 2006, JSa’s project, Brazil 44, a small housing rehabilitation project in Mexico City, won ��á�Գ����� and the firm the Golden Lion for Best Urban Projects at the Venice Biennale.

“This was a very small project, but with big importance,” said ��á�Գ�����. “People do not need the same space to live. Like families today, they do not need to have a common structure. Families subdivide, they add, subtract, they work and live. So how do you make a space that can adapt to all those needs that families today have?”

This type of adaptive design will be incorporated into ��á�Գ�����’s fall studio with students from three of the college’s schools. They will embrace ��á�Գ�����’s rehabilitative practice as they reimagine the former General Shale building in Downtown Knoxville, maintaining the building footprint and adapting it into a community hub that celebrates the proximity to the Tennessee River.

This week, ��á�Գ����� will take 16 architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture students to Mexico City and Oaxaca to view and other impactful sustainably focused designs and landscapes in Mexico.

Join the college for ��á�Գ�����’s , at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, September 23.

��á�Գ����� graduated as an architect with honors from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM), received his master’s degree in real estate development from Columbia University in New York City. In 2008, he was selected as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Since 2013, the BarberMcMurry Professorship has funded internationally recognized architects as teachers and researchers for the benefit of students at the �������ϲʿ������.

The professorship was established by Knoxville-based firm, , to promote design excellence through teaching and research by a prominent visiting professor who is an internationally or nationally recognized practicing architect. It is the result of a bequest from Blanche Barber and a match by BarberMcMurry Architects to produce the $1 million endowment.

Previous BarberMcMurry Endowed Professors include Lawrence Scarpa in 2013; Wendell Burnette in 2015; Billie Faircloth in 2018; Mitchell Squire in 2020; and Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler in 2021; and Ryan Jones in 2022.

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“I mainly helped with the additional graphics for a series of maps used to analyze the Maule River and the Ramal Talca-Constitución,” said Fields. “I met specifically with one of the students who spoke English throughout my last two weeks going over things such as what size font to use and what colors would look best for analyzing the maps.”

Although the trip was Fields’ first time outside the United States, the language barrier was not the biggest challenge she faced.

“I just so happened to visit Chile while they were having one of their coldest winters and it took several days to get used to walking around with multiple layers of clothing,” she said. “I flew from Columbia to Atlanta where it was summer, and I was wearing a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts because it was hot and then landed in Santiago where everyone else wore thick jackets and boots because it was cold.”

Fields was able to participate in cultural events such as the Fiesta del Chancho de Talca, Talca Pig Festival, and travel the country.

“My most memorable experience was riding up the Andes Mountains just after it snowed,” she said. “It was a very beautiful experience especially since I don’t get to see snow very often. At one point the peak of the snowy mountain top blended with the cloudy sky and almost looked like a never-ending winter wonderland.”��

She made a point of visiting museums between Talca, Viña del Mar, and Valparaíso.

“During my first week in Talca, I went to the O’Higgins’s Museum and learned about the famous Chilean independence leader, Bernardo O’Higgins. The building is his preserved home turned into a museum featuring artifacts and other historical information about Talca. During my third week in Chile, I took a private trip to Viña del Mar and Valparaíso. I spent most of the time walking through various plazas and outdoor attractions because it was much warmer in those two cities. In Viña del Mar, I visited the Fonk Museum and learned about the Mapuches and their cultural importance in Chile. In Valparaíso, I visited the Baburizza Palace and got to view a variety of artwork with a great view of the ports.”

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The summer mini term program allowed Stähli to be flexible with her final year in the program and explore a new country.

“There is such a big world out there and what is the point of having such a big world and not being able to see it,” she said. “It was so surreal stepping into Tokyo and seeing some of the infamous temples and market streets, it literally felt like a dream. I could not believe I was there!”

Throughout the summer mini term, students traveled to Toyko, Koyasan, Osaka, Fukui, and Kyoto. Stähli was most impact by Koyasan and staying in the Buddhist monastery,��and the tea ceremony in the��Katsura Imperial Villa.

“As a future designer, I think this program helped me to gain confidence in presenting to people of other cultures,” she said. “It also opened my eyes to their way of thinking from part to whole, micro to macro of design and the balance of contemporary and traditional design and the effort of merging those two.”

The experience expanded Stähli’s view of the field.

“You never know who will know who. As well, that the field of design is not only just architecture or interior architecture, but it can be artists, sculptors, pottery makers, and more. I learned simply how wide the word “design” spans.”

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“When I found out I was one of the three Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship recipients, I was honestly speechless,” said O’Neil. “I was flooded with emotions of happiness, honor, gratitude, and a bit of shock. It was something that I had put a ton of work and time into this semester, and I was initially just so honored to be one of the two nominated from the school, and then extremely honored to be a finalist, and now I am beyond grateful and proud to be one of the scholarship recipients.”

Growing up in Nashville, Tennessee, O’Neil saw the city’s booming development. In between schoolwork and basketball, she spent hours teaching herself to use software that would bring her design concepts to life.

She received the scholarship for Salutogenic Sanctuary, an in-patient addiction center with out-patient facilities and sanctuary conceptual design during her third year.

“For me, a sanctuary isn’t necessarily a specific place in the built environment, but a place I feel calm and a place that I truly want to be, and ultimately a place of healing,” O’Neil said. “Addiction centers generally have a pretty negative connotation, but they can play such an impactful role in someone’s life. I believe that a big part of the healing process in any instance is the want to heal and the environment that you are healing in can play a large role in that. I am very interested in biophilic design and exploring ways design can improve one’s wellbeing and this project informed and expanded that interest.”

The studio, led by lecturer Ashley Coon, encouraged students to explore artificial intelligence as they envisioned and developed their space. Inspired by a lecture from Gensler’s Global Director of Design Technology Joseph Joseph on how the firm is using AI and feedback she received in her final review by Nashville Gensler Principal Christopher Goggin, O’Neil revisited and expanded her designs.

“His lecture reminded me that pushing the boundaries of myself and my work will give me the most desirable outcome,” she said.

Torres-Panzera, of Marietta, Georgia, grew up playing musical instruments which she says lent itself to the repetition and iterative practice of design.

“Playing a musical instrument is a super sensory experience,” she said. “When I practiced growing up, I listened to the tone, felt the strings or keys and their vibrations, and read the music at the same time. It is so stimulating and thrilling in this way. When we design anything spatial, we consider each sense as its own experience. Especially because I was designing an exhibition that ignites feelings of nostalgia and ephemerality, I knew I needed to be intentional about how the user would see, feel, and hear the space.”

Her winning project envisioned a temporary exhibit depicting Villa Temporaria Rincón Chico de Piedra del Águila, a temporary town in the southeast of the province of Neuquén, in Patagonia, Argentina, as a part of Assistant Professor Marie Saldaña’s studio.

The former town’s community included School of Interior Architecture Director Milagros Zingoni Phielipp, which encouraged Torres-Panzera to consider the different life experiences as she conceptualized the exhibition.

“It gave me the big responsibility of how I represent her story through design,” Torres-Panzera said. “Some people may associate that town with being a kid, someone may remember those ten years raising a family, and other people associate that town with a chapter of hard work and heavy labor.

“The town was like its own lively bubble, and now all that remains is its footprint. When I designed the exhibition, I wanted something that kind of disappears but leaves its footprint, because this is all people who lived there have left.”

The exhibition features paper structures that rise and fall representing the town’s emergence and disappearance. The paper would reveal silhouettes that represent the inhabitants’ experiences living in the temporary community.

The pair mark the sixth and seventh award recipients in the past ten years in the �������ϲʿ������. Previous winners include:

• Danielle Lanier, second-place winner, 2020
• Niklos Toldi, first-place winner, 2018
• Mary Morgan Smith, second-place winner, 2017
• Taylor Odom, second-place winner, 2016
• Erin Collins, first-place winner, 2015

The scholarship was established in 1999 as a memorial to Donald G. Brinkmann, an inspirational interior designer and former Gensler principal who personified the essence of design, vision, and leadership.

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This spring, Dean Young recognized 11 faculty members with one of the four college awards during the �������ϲʿ������’s State of the College address.��

The Alma and Hal Reagan Research Seed Award was established to help kickstart shorter-term, high impact research projects or the beginning stages of potentially longer-term projects. These projects target categories that address the college’s strengths and strategic priorities. This year’s awards were presented to…��

• Jennifer Akerman, Associate Professor of Architecture, Critical Practice in Architecture��
• Liz Teston, Associate Professor of Interior Architecture, and Catty Dan Zhang, Associate Professor of Architecture, The Weather Holds: Atmospheric Thresholds in the New South��
• Scott Wall, Professor of Architecture, 100 Maps of Finland: Selective Cartography��

The James Musgraves Research Award supports faculty with research projects in later development stages that would benefit from additional funding to complete them. This year’s awards supported…��

• Gregor Kalas, Associate Professor of Architecture, Eternal City of Compassion: The Reuse of Ancient Architecture for Charity Centers in Late Antique and Early Medieval Rome��
• Marshall Prado, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Composite Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Process (CHAMP)��
• Rutenberg, and Avigail Sachs, Associate Professor of Architecture, The Mechanized Landscape: Statecraft and Environment in the Tennessee Valley��

The �������ϲʿ������ Grant Writing Program Award assists faculty in identifying and developing proposals for external funding in support of longer-term research agendas. Faculty recognized for this year’s awards included…��

• Kalas, Structural Resilience and Architectural Restoration in the Aftermath of Postmodern Crises��
• Hojung Kim, Assistant Professor of Interior Architecture, Mekong Delta Handicraft: A Blueprint for Mang Thit’s Cultural and Architectural Heritage��
• Zhang, Non-Smoking Architecture: Synthesizing Digital Design Workflow, Smart Technologies, and Domestic Weather Forms of Contemporary Living in the East Tennessee Region��

The Faculty ReCharge Program was established to refresh faculty members’ own learning, rejuvenating them and their future students. The stipends enable faculty to travel, reflect on and develop teaching priorities, new courses and pursue other academic endeavors. This year’s program supported five awards.��

• Carl F. Maples Faculty Development Award: Akerman for her proposal to travel to the Pacific Northwest to develop a journal article.��
• Lindsay and Maples Faculty Award: Mark Stanley, Assistant Professor of Architecture, for his proposal to travel to Japan to study the fallout of the US history of nuclear materials.��
• �������ϲʿ������ Fund Award: Wall for his proposed travel to Lapland while he is in Finland this summer.��
• Architecture Faculty Award:��Prado for his proposal to attend the RobArch 2024 Conference in Toronto.��

• Dean’s Excellence Faculty ReCharge Award: David Fox, Associate Professor of Architecture, for his proposal to initiate research for a book on the Thorncrown Chapel by E. Fay Jones, FAIA.��

Faculty research profoundly impacts students’ courses and industry knowledge by infusing cutting-edge findings and innovative practices into the curriculum. As faculty engage in diverse research projects, they bring fresh insights and contemporary perspectives into the classroom, enriching the educational experience.��

The Research Development Program aligns with the college’s forthcoming vision and strategic priorities, including a robust research program.

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Shoemaker and Webb join the in the United States and Canada as selected by the magazine’s team.

, a fourth-year student from Germantown, Tennessee, was nominated by Greg Terry, owner of GSTerry Design Studio, and Rana Abudayyeh, associate professor and Robin Klehr Avia Professor of Interior Architecture.

“I remember Caitlin Turner had been recognized my freshman year, so I was so excited when I found out I had been selected,” said Shoemaker. “Receiving an honor like MET Future100 is so validating of all the work I have put in and solidifies that I am on the right path.”

IA Collaborative, UT’s student organization of IIDA and ASID, has been a formative experience for Shoemaker. She has served on the board since her first-year at UT and finishes her term as president this semester.

“My time in IA Collaborative taught me how to serve the community I am a part of both inside and outside of the A+A,” she said. “Experiences in IA Collaborative taught me how to network and present myself professionally as well as participate in the college’s academic and administrative conversation. Being a part of this organization connected me to the pulse of the School of Interior Architecture by embedding me in its community.”

, a fourth-year student from Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, was nominated by Abudayyeh as well. She has served in multiple leadership roles in IA Collaborative. Webb was a 2023 Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship finalist and 2023 ASID Student Commercial Silver Award recipient.

“I have so much respect for our interior architecture leadership and professors, so I felt very honored to been nominated and lucky to have been selected,” she said.

She developed a passion for inclusive and community-driven spaces after two studios with Abudayyeh. This fall, she will continue to explore her design interests as she pursues a Master’s in architecture degree at UT.

“The School of Interior Architecture has prepared me well for graduate school. I believe my time as an interior architecture student will help me be a better architecture student,” she said.

.

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“Watching Tony see the room was incredibly rewarding and heartwarming,” said Makenzie Karr, a first-year student and incoming philanthropy chair of IA Collaborative, the student chapter of IIDA and ASID. “For a family who has been going through a really hard time, to have people express love and care over them, is really special and to be able to do this for them was so impactful. It was a true picture of making dreams come true, and seeing the effect design can have on lives.”

The interior architecture students began working with Special Spaces, a not-for-profit organization creating dream bedrooms for children with cancer, last fall to fundraise for Tony’s room renovation. The nonprofit blended the organization’s community service and professional development missions.

“First and foremost, we are a professional development organization, so our goal is to help students work on their skill sets as a designer and to be prepared as an employee,” said Emmie Barnett, a fourth-year interior architecture student and vice president of IA Collaborative. “Working with an organization like Special Spaces, allows us to give back to the community while gaining residential design experience.”

With $1,500 to construct and furnish the young boy’s oasis, IA Collaborative hosted a competition for members to propose a design for Tony’s room with small groups across four cohorts. Barnett was a part of the winning team, “Godzilla likes Legos too.”

Students utilized the college’s woodshop to fabricate elements of Tony’s room renovation, including a feature wall of 3D building blocks. Sixteen Volunteers assisted Special Spaces in the installation of the design and seven were on-site when Tony first saw his new room.

“It has been a pleasure working with all of these young professionals,” said Amy Hensley, chapter director of Special Spaces. “They take everything we are doing very seriously and want to give their very best in each task they have been given. I think they should be very happy with the final reveal and getting to see the impact they helped to make on a very deserving 12-year-old boy’s life.”

IA Collaborative plans to continue their partnership with Special Spaces.

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“Using eye tracking software, we are understanding design goals for our stakeholders,” she said. The pair aim to improve curriculum by better removing aspects of design that are inherently understood by incoming students, in- and outside of the School of Interior Architecture. Their research is investigating branding, community, sustainability, and wellness, the area Simon is drawn to most.

The �������ϲʿ������ and School of Interior Architecture helped financially support Simons’ travels and conference costs.

“As educators, it’s our duty to nurture curiosity and empower our students to pursue their passions beyond the confines of our classrooms,” said Zingoni. “Supporting Abbie to present this research internationally isn’t just about showcasing their academic achievements; it’s about fostering a global perspective and instilling in them the confidence to make meaningful contributions to the world.”

A native of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the conference was Simon’s first trip out of the country. During the conference, she was able to learn from PhD candidates across the world and network with international researchers.

“I’m so grateful for the college and our faculty for supporting everything I’ve pursued at UT. I’m reminded every day that I made the right choice for my education,” she said.

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“I put a lot into thinking about the experience that students have in the classroom and to see the work that’s produced and that how that’s been recognized is huge,” said Dean. “It’s not your typical kind of interiors studio in the sense that of how it looks at textiles, how it looks at culture through objects and artifacts that the students are learning by literally through their hands. By understanding culture through making so it, it feels fantastic for that to be recognized as a form of learning that’s successful.”

Since joining the faculty in 2019, her courses, such as Woven Spatial Identity and The Politics of Seating, engage students in essential discussions and design investigations by layering culture, history, identity, craft with analog and digital fabrication methods.��

“It’s not just about them researching something in a book or learning from a video about a culture. They’re not necessarily going there, but they’re getting an aspect of immersion through the craft, weaving, or quilting.��

“The students have responded positively to taking a break from working on their computer and this kind of slower movement to produce something. It grounds them a bit, gives them time to breathe,” she said.��

Dean is the second faculty member from the School of Interior Architecture to receive the award at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Assistant Professor Rana Abudeyyah received the award in 2022, and Milagros Zingoni, director of the school, received the award in 2019, prior to joining the college.��

Dean’s creative scholarship examines hard and soft material configurations, identity, visual communication, and their correlated implications. In 2021, Dean’s research investigation of latent stone and fabric material identities as a method of reconciling space and place was supported by a grant from the the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.��

Her project, Perception of Misconceptions: Intersecting Stone and Fabric Material Identities, examines digital and hand fabrication processes, stone carving and Appalachian and Italian quilting techniques. The study includes a collaboration with the partnership she has developed with the Tennessee Marble Company and participation in the Digital Stone Project Residency in Italy.��

While at the IDEC conference, Dean will present her findings, which were applied through the fabrication of furniture designs. Last year, she was invited to disseminate her scholarship of teaching and learning at Toronto Metropolitan University by leading one of their BEHR sponsored workshops at their Design + Technology Lab. This year she has accepted invitations to teach workshops as part of the University of Nebraska—Lincoln’s initiatives for their Angelo Donghia Foundation award, and at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.��

“Felicia’s dedication to crafting immersive learning experiences for our students has always been unparalleled,” said Zingoni. “Her ability to intertwine culture, history, and craftsmanship within the classroom not only fosters exceptional learning but also inspires creativity and critical thinking. The recognition of her tireless efforts with the 2024 Teaching Excellence Award is a testament to her unwavering commitment to education and innovation in interior architecture. We couldn’t be prouder of her accomplishments and the impact she continues to make within our academic community.”

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