The Art of Healing
CAA Student Fuses Beauty and Function to Create Award-Winning Chair
While visiting her aunt in a hospital room as a 15-year old, Ainsley Bauer ’23 didn’t immediately think she would someday study interior architecture. But what she saw got her thinking about how she could make things better.
She realized the sterile, generic surroundings in her aunt’s hospital room were not conducive to recovery for the mind or body. Remembering that scene helped her become an award-winning furniture designer.
“I knew it was not a good environment for recovery,” said Bauer, who graduated earlier this year in Interior Architecture & Design (IAD) before enrolling in U of I’s Master's in Architecture program. “There is a psychology to healing. If you feel safe and comfortable, you’re going to heal faster.”
The Spokane native brought her dream of designing furniture for medical facilities to U of I, and specifically to IAD 332, the College of Art and Architecture’s Furniture Design and Construction class, which offers the unique opportunity to both design and build furniture.
“This class exposes students to every step of the creative process – from concept design to model making to building their own full-size furniture,” said Miranda Anderson, director of the IAD program.
