September 22, 2023
APDesign graduate student earns ARCC Medal of Excellence
Each year, one graduating student from the Kansas State University College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, receives the Architectural Research Centers Consortium Jonathan King Medal. This year's recipient is Kayla Roles, 2023 industrial design graduate in the K-State Department of Interior Architecture & Industrial Design.
The Architectural Research Centers Consortium, or ARCC, offers this award in honor of the late Jonathan King, a co-founder and first president of the organization. Each member college is privileged to give this award annually to a student in recognition of research excellence in architecture, planning, or design.
Graduating students may be nominated by their major professors, and each department follows its own process for selecting nominees. This year, four graduating students were nominated:
- Katherine Olson, 2023 graduate in interior architecture, nominated for her project, “Bridging the Gap: Designing for intergroup contact to combat polarization in urban environments.”
- Katherine Herrera, 2023 graduate in landscape architecture, nominated for her project report, “Art (that) Works: Design guidelines for equitable public art.”
- Raegan Linenberger, 2023 graduate in regional and community planning, nominated for her project report, “Best approach for addressing vacancies and unused space within main street districts.”
- Kayla Roles, 2023 graduate in industrial design, nominated for her project, “DASH: Relieving creative burnout through physical activity.”
Roles’ DASH project was selected by a jury composed of research faculty from across K-State. The multidisciplinary jury represented disciplines in art, education and sciences. By tradition of APDesign, the jury is external to the college and anonymous, fostering objective review of nominees’ research and creative inquiry projects.
Jurors praised Roles’ project for its clearly stated problem statement, well framed with the focus on creative individuals; elegant presentation of the research; innovative illustrations, especially in product development; and detailed and extensive research examining an important topic — burnout — within the frame of creative individuals.
Roles was nominated by her major professor Byungsoo Kim who praised Kayla's "skills in literature review, precedent analysis and user studies, including surveys and interviews. Her ability to synthesize information and clearly articulate her findings is impressive.” Kim noted that Roles achieved two publications while a student and that the craft and presentation of her research products are of the highest quality, reflecting her attention to detail and dedication to her work.
More information about the King Medal is available at Arcc-arch.org.