Pratt Institute Interior Design

DIFFA GALA Installation - 2026

We are pleased to share our installation for DIFFA gala 2026.
Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) raises awareness and grants funds to not only HIV/AIDS but also broader health and social issues. This year’s fundraising gala, themed “Angels & Demons”, was held on the evening of March 19 at Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The concept of the installation: Reflections and Duality
This installation acts as a reflection of one's perceptions of angels and demons, and their inseparable duality. Here, the fragility of moral oppositions are exposed; untouched they appear distinct but when confronted they bleed into each other.

Instructor:
Jon Otis
Margot Kleinman

Student team:
Jasmine Tannoury
Kayla Jarvis
Danielle Gordon
Jerome Christian (JC) Fernando

Congratulations to Alvin You, BFA 26, the recipient of the 2025 Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship! He shares the scholarship-winning project and his personal design philosophy in this post.
Growing up in Vancouver, studying in New York, and spending summers in China, Alvin had the chance to experience many cities and cultures. Seeing how design can influence people and how those experiences can live with us for a long time, Alvin decided to create spaces that leave an impression, and quietly stay with people long after they’ve left them.

We are excited to share Alvin’s story. Full article and video in bio.
INTstudent - Alvin You .12 - BFA 26

Check out full story link in Bio.
Last Information Session of the year tomorrow!!! 12/16 - 9am EST




podcast

https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/6784511/interior-provocations-weather

Interior Provocations: WEATHER - Announcements - e-flux On November 7, The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture presents Interior Provocations: WEATHER.

Pratt Interior Design student Jenny Nguyen Le teamed up with her architect mentor Christina Galati from Gensler to create a stunning miniature space for the AIANY Interiors Committee’s Recipe for a Room contest! 🍽️✨ Designing small-scale Places of Food and Culture was such a fun and inspiring challenge.

Foraging Futures explores how overlooked resources can become ingredients for survival. The space invites visitors to forage and prepare invasive plants, turning a nuisance into a solution for dialogue about food insecurity.

Inspired by Vietnamese culture, where foraging was once a common practice during times of scarcity, the project reclaims this tradition as both a means of survival and a cultural identity. By making the model entirely of rice (a staple in Vietnamese culture), it highlights the importance of looking to what is locally abundant and how culinary habits can hold memory and meaning in a fast-paced city like New York.

Imagined on public foraging grounds, the space proposes a future where communities shift their consumption toward renewable, fast-growing materials. It becomes not only a place to gather but also a platform for rethinking habits, survival, and belonging.

Fay Ran, MFA’25

In Transit

Temporary Community

In Transit re-imagines CHARAS’s legacy through a design lens, balancing personal growth and communal renewal. Drawing from Puerto Rican informal living patterns, it proposes adaptive, flexible interiors that offer low-income youth transitional spaces, fostering self-identity and belonging.

Thesis advisor: Frederic Levrat

Moon Jung Choi, BFA’25

Color Equality renovates a pavilion in Chinatown’s Columbus Park into a space where survivors of anti-Asian hate crimes can heal. Spaces to therapeutically reenact and re-script trauma, share emotions with other survivors, and electronically monitor sites of previous attacks are designed to restore the agency taken during an attack.

Thesis advisor: Alexander Schweder

Ruoyan Wang, MFA’25

Hybrid Workspace Design for Enhanced Collaboration

Integrating Digital Twins, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality in an AI and IoT Research Institute.

This thesis explores creating a hybrid workspace that merges physical and virtual environments, utilizing digital twins, AR, and VR to support real-time interaction, collaboration, and seamless engagement between on-site and remote users. The design prioritizes flexibility, comfort, and sensory engagement, incorporating biophilic elements like green zones and adaptive lighting for well-being and productivity.

Thesis advisor: Stefanie Werner

Zixu Wang, MFA’25

Wired Encounter
A study of elastic connection between people and space

This thesis explores perception of spatial volume typically characterized by planes, surfaces, and containment, as deconstructed lines. The proposal analyzes experiential notions of elastic, dynamic and responsive boundary, zone, and program, which then contribute to alternative behavioral, ergonomic, contextual and relational connectivity.

Thesis advisor: Nina Freedman

Wenxuan (Primrose) Zhang, BFA’25

Rural Revitalization: ReForm, ReUse, ReImagine

This thesis revitalizes Dongtai Village through spatial interventions that reconnect interior spaces to the Great Wall through adaptive reuse strategies. Addressing the challenges of rural revitalization, this project re-imagines the village’s architectural language to support contemporary rural life, ensuring the community will evolve and sustain itself rather than remaining a preserved relic.

Thesis advisor: Sarah Lippmann