Ivette Mas Druguet, finalist in the CoDIC Awards for Final Degree Projects

Ivette Mas Druguet has been a finalist in the CoDIC awards with her final degree project ‘Alba - L'espai més confortable del món' 

How do you value the recognition your TFG has received at the CoDIC awards?  

With a lot of gratitude. It is a project in which I have invested many hours of work, but I have really enjoyed each and every one of them. From the beginning I tried to find a theme that rather than being a heavy workload, was a way to enrich me, help me to grow, regenerate me... While I was doing the work I was going through a very complicated personal moment and I wanted to take advantage of the situation to empathise with the project and look for the sensations that I myself would like to find in this space-object that was Alba. I always try to find a meaning beyond the visual in all my work; I like to take into account all the senses and that through my designs I can impact on the emotions of the users. So all in all, it is always exciting to see how you have achieved the goal of somehow touching the reader of the work and to see that the CoDIC jury has been able to perceive this is an honour for me.  

‘Alba - L'espai més confortable del món' is a project that is closely linked to the current pandemic and confinement situation, why did you decide to design a space like this? 

As I said before, I was in a vulnerable moment where I could not afford to put an extra burden on my life. That's why I tried to find a subject that I could empathise with and could inform myself and work on it in an almost playful way.  

I am a very empathetic person who has always had a great interest in the world of psychology and my professional goal is to ensure that my designs always take into account the emotional side of the user with whom I am working. Interior spaces are environments in which we spend a very large part of our lives and I consider it very important to take into account how they affect us emotionally and to use my work to ensure that they have a positive impact on people's wellbeing.  

In short, this project is a small summary and proof of how I like to work. Emotional and always taking care of the environment, delicately selecting all the materials I work with. I think that if I am looking for the user's comfort, I also have to take into account the wellbeing of the environment where I live and this implies taking good care of our planet.  

And so, Alba was finally born, a work that has come from my soul and that aims not only to be a refuge for those who need it in a situation of confinement due to a pandemic, but also for all those people who do not feel comfortable with their reality and seek refuge, a temporary escape to rebalance and find themselves again.  

How do you value your time at EINA? 

My time at EINA has been, like almost everything else in my life, intense. I am grateful for each and every day I have spent in its classrooms because in one way or another they have made me become the person and professional that I am today. I have met incredible teachers who have helped and enriched me both academically and personally and I will remember this for life.