Dezeen School Shows: infrastructure designed to mitigate flooding from the Delaware River is among the projects from the School of Visual Arts.

Also featured is a "food rescue hub" that collects discarded food and passes it on to communities in need, and a bamboo bridge built in the mountains of China.

School of Visual Arts

Institution: School of Visual Arts
Course: Interior Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan

School statement:

"Welcome to the SVA Interior Design: Built Environments 2026 Thesis Showcase.

"Our SVA ID:BE thesis programme centres on adaptive reuse – the intelligent transformation of existing structures to meet the complex global and local challenges of the 21st century.

"This showcase is the culmination of a year-long exploration into how we can better inhabit what we have already built.

"By pushing the boundaries of the discipline, our students explore how the built environment shapes our internal lives and emotional wellbeing, while prioritising social equity, communal wellness and environmental resilience.

"Tackling diverse urgent themes – from food waste and urban re-wilding to cultural memory and demographic shifts – our students bridge the gap between design and advocacy.

"This body of work reflects the evolving role of the interior designer as a spatial storyteller, a problem-solver and an agent of change in our built environments."

City within the Monolith by Bin Seungbin Jeong

"The monolithic Manhattan Mall, now vacant and underutilised with deep floorplates and
limited light and air, resists adaptive reuse.

"By reinterpreting past urban strategies,
the project transforms its historical 'solid-to-solid' connections into a 'void-to-void'
network, establishing a continuous public promenade linking street, interior and rooftop.

"It brings the setback method that defines New York's urban form into the building through
solar carving within a central atrium, producing a civic void that allows light and air to
penetrate deep into the interior.

"The mass is subdivided into distinct architectural blocks, each derived from contextual facade languages and programmatic needs, forming a city within the monolith that supports a diverse mixed-use future."

Student: Bin Seungbin Jeong
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: sjeong9[at]sva.edu

Exhibition – X by Jesse Bongiorno

"Exhibition – X reimagines the site through architectural symbiosis, where built form behaves like a living organism.

"Structures are designed to grow, erode and adapt over time, mimicking processes such as decay, regeneration, and ecological succession.

"Through assisted decay and the introduction of porous, responsive spaces, the architecture merges with the landscape rather than dominating it.

"By redirecting water flow from nearby Jamaica Bay and elevating human circulation, the ground plane is restored to native species.

"The project dissolves boundaries between architecture and environment, allowing the site to function as a dynamic, self-sustaining ecosystem that evolves alongside its natural surroundings."

Student: Jesse Bongiorno
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: jbongiorno[at]sva.edu

Folly Farm by Emmy Flemmen

"Boulder, Colorado is brimming with creatives, each carrying an innovative vision for the future – but how can one city hold so many unfolding paths?

"Within city limits, the pressures of modern life and advancing technologies often take precedence, quietly suffocating the space artists need to think, experiment and grow.

"Just twenty minutes outside of Boulder, Folly Farm offers an alternative. Nestled at edge of the mountains, it provides the stillness necessary for reflection, while its expansive workshop spaces cultivate a sense of shared purpose and creative community.

"Here, artists are given both the solitude to explore their individual practices and the support to expand beyond them."

Student: Emmy Flemmen
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: eflemmen[at]sva.edu

ReLoop by Han Le

"Positioned adjacent to the Union Square Greenmarket, ReLoop proposes a public food rescue hub that rethinks the life cycle of food from harvest to consumption.

"It responds to the fact that food systems are typically understood only at the point of consumption, while harvesting, sorting, distribution and composting remain unseen and therefore overlooked.

"As a result, large amounts of edible produce are discarded before reaching markets. The project intercepts surplus and cosmetically imperfect food directly from farmers, redirecting it to food-insecure communities.

"Through spaces for sorting, preparation and community cooking, it makes these processes visible, linking producers and urban consumers while encouraging more conscious relationships with food."

Student: Han Le
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: hle4[at]sva.edu

Block-Party by Jisoo Lee

"Bloc-Party uses rezoning as an architectural tool to transform an industrial past into a shared community future.

"Through the adaptive reuse of Block 432 in Gowanus, Brooklyn, an abandoned factory is reimagined as a 'playful superblock' centred on sport as a social catalyst.

"A modular steel scaffolding system redefines circulation as a three-dimensional, jungle-gym experience, blending public and private, indoor and outdoor spaces from plaza to rooftop, and incorporating the new addition of residential areas.

"The universal language of sport acts as an icebreaker, fostering connections across diverse groups while reinforcing the site's historical identity."

Student: Jisoo Lee
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: jlee417[at]sva.edu

Coexist by Jiun Lee

"Coexist responds to South Korea's overlapping crises of low birth rates, rapid ageing and widespread school closures, revealing a growing disconnect between generations.

"Rather than a single building, the project proposes a scalable prototype that transforms underutilised schools into intergenerational civic hubs.

"Programs are organised through a gradient of emotional intimacy and interaction, enabling relationships to form through varying degrees of proximity, care and independence.

"Through carefully calibrated spatial relationships, Coexist supports both autonomy and connection, offering a model for how different generations can coexist with respect and reciprocity.

"The design reuses the existing structure, bringing past and present into dialogue.

"Preserved elements are paired with new interventions, reflecting continuity while accommodating change."

Student: Jiun Lee
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: jlee381[at]sva.edu

Courrèges by Yuri Lim

"Courrèges Flagship transforms an outdated 1980s building in Hannam-dong, Seoul, into a fashion and connection hub that bridges the main boulevard's luxury retail corridor with the independent back-alley community.

"Inspired by Courrèges' Space-Age identity, the project introduces a bold diagonal cylindrical tunnel that restores pedestrian continuity while creating fluid circulation between contrasting urban conditions.

"Through the concept of Solid and Floating, heavy red structural forms contrast with the suspended stainless-steel display systems, translating Courrèges futuristic brand language into a spatial experience.

"By merging adaptive reuse, fashion and urban connectivity, the project redefines flagship retail as an immersive spatial destination."

Student: Yuri Lim
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: ylim12[at]sva.edu

The Care Loop by Hyunwoo Seo

"The Care Loop reimagines how routine activities can foster urban connection and personal wellbeing.

"By turning everyday chores into opportunities for pause and interaction, the project envisions a human-scale mixed-use hub that harmonises care, comfort and community.

"The project uses laundry as the core program to change that condition. Laundry is not an optional activity – it is a repeated, time-based necessity that naturally creates 30 to 90 minutes of waiting.

"By designing around that cycle, the laundromat becomes more than a utility: it becomes a daily anchor that people return to, and a gentle framework for comfort, routine, and small moments of interaction.

"The need is also practical: the surrounding context includes dorms, many small households, and newer apartments that may not provide washer/dryer units.

"It also includes alongside nearby anchors such as a large university hospital, fitness facilities, and health screening clinics – all of which support steady demand for convenient laundry infrastructure."

Student: Hyunwoo Seo
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: hseo17[at]sva.edu

Common Ground by Fanyu Wu

"In the bamboo-rich mountains of Yuhang, China – Common Ground emerges as a bridge between an ancient grove and an abandoned rural village.

"The design mimics the organic clustering of the forest, employing bamboo as a sophisticated, sustainable structural system that thrives in both tension and compression.

"These interventions dissolve the threshold between the interior and the landscape, creating a space where manmade structures and live trees coexist in a rich, harmonious environment.

"By providing a cultural and community hub for locals, artists and tourists, Common Ground transforms an overlooked landscape into a vibrant centre for collective living and working.

"It is a place of shared purpose – a sanctuary where residents and travellers meet to interact and dwell within the rhythm of the trees."

Student: Fanyu Wu
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: fwu8[at]sva.edu

Hydrologic Sequence by Jackson Zerrer

"Hydrologic Sequence reframes the relationship between Lambertville, New Jersey, and the Delaware River by transforming an abandoned quarry into a vital piece of water-management infrastructure.

"By intentionally flooding the industrial scar left by decades of extraction, the project creates a buffer that mitigates downriver flooding while repurposing the site for ecological and economic productivity.

"Existing structures are adapted into a programmatically diverse sequence – ranging from a bait shop and open market to advanced aquaculture and hydroponic facilities.

"This transition is unified by a 'biologically informed connective tissue', an adaptive circulation system that physically responds to the fluctuating thresholds of the floodwaters."

Student: Jackson Zerrer
Course: Interior Design Thesis Studio
Instructors: Anthony Lee and Gita Nandan
Email: jzerrer[at]sva.edu

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and the School of Visual Arts. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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