The Virginia Tech Honors College has partnered with USM Modular Furniture, a renowned Swiss manufacturer of modular furniture systems, to create exhibits for the 2025 Venice Architectural Biennial Exhibition. The exhibits will showcase the college’s pedagogical innovations in tandem with USM’s furniture systems.

In addition to donating the furniture systems that will be utilized in the exhibition displays, USM will provide another form of support to the Honors College: offering valuable industry expertise to the student group that is leading the design of one of the college’s two exhibits.

The students in the “No Blue, No Green” studio are responsible for designing, curating, and executing the details of the pavilion exhibit that will be showcased in Venice’s Marinaressa Gardens. Over the course of the project, this student group will be mentored by representatives from USM, experiencing what it’s like to work on a project alongside real-world industry experts.

Enric Ruiz-Geli, the professor of practice teaching the studio course, said: “Very few companies in the world are willing to engage in the sort of design that I would call disruptive innovation. They have openness to these new ideas, and I think it is very edgy for the leadership of USM to participate in this project – which is what you need to raise the bar overall in both education and industry.”

Site visits and online meetings will give the students the opportunity to receive feedback from USM representatives as the project progresses. USM will also provide materials and physical mockups of the USM system, allowing the students to get a sense of the systems before the pavilion design is finalized.

This physical, tangible experience with the materials will be essential to the project. Experiencing the components and physical structure of the furniture firsthand allows the students to let the materiality of the systems inform the overall design of the exhibit.

In October, the Honors College hosted Jon Thorson, managing director of USM USA, to finalize the partnership and demonstrate the students’ progress over the past several semesters.

During the visit, the multidisciplinary group of students presented their work, showcasing drafts of architectural structures, predictive models, pollinator-centered horticultural plans, and curated displays. These details were presented alongside thoughtful discussions of the guiding concepts that have informed the project, which aims to benefit the community of Venice in the long term.

Thorson delivered his own parallel presentation to the students that detailed the features, applications, and possibilities afforded by USM furniture systems.

“The Honors College approach is unlike any educational model I’ve encountered. It invites student participation and leadership into every collaboration. What I saw yesterday mirrors professional-level project development,” said Thorson after the presentations.

USM furniture will not only be featured in the pavilion exhibit: the Honors College is also designing an exhibit to be displayed in Palazzo Bembo, a historical venue near the Rialto Bridge. This project is being designed through a fully integrated approach, including input and perspectives from Honors College students, faculty, and industry partners.

The focus of the Palazzo Bembo exhibit will be the pedagogical processes and methods pioneered by the Honors College. Projects produced by Honors College students and faculty over the last several years will be displayed using the USM modular system.

Far from a simple means to display projects, USM furniture represents a central theme of this exhibit. By showcasing the Honors College process within the USM system, the exhibit will cross boundaries between education and industry, demonstrating successful collaboration between these spheres that are so often regarded as disparate.

The nature of the USM system will highlight another central tenet of the Honors College philosophy: the focus on iterative process, feedback, and continuous improvement. Supported by the modular furniture, the exhibit will peel back the layers of projects in different phases of completion, demonstrating how the process of working on a project is just as important as the result.

The partnership between USM and the Honors College was initiated by Kevin Jones, professor of practice and design lead of the exhibit. Jones is a Virginia Tech alum who interned with USM while he was completing his degree in industrial design, subsequently working with the company to design an exhibit for Design Miami.

Jones sought to strengthen the relationship between the Honors College and USM, which he saw as a natural fit because of the values shared between the two organizations.

“Partnering with a brand as iconic as USM, now our corporate sponsor, isn’t just about design and architecture; it’s about setting the stage for students to experience the pulse of real-world collaboration. This project goes beyond theory; it’s where design meets business, creativity meets discipline, and ideas cross boundaries. As a professor of practice, my goal is to make sure these students aren’t spectators. They’re immersed, front and center in the process, seeing firsthand how our priorities align with a legacy like USM’s. We’re crafting a project that redefines what an international educational partnership can be. This is transdisciplinary at its core, and it’s as much about what we’re creating together as how we’re making it happen." said Jones.

As a professor of practice, Jones is able to serve as a bridge between the students – used to the conventions of higher education – and industry partners like USM, which often have a set of conventions and standards very different from the projects that the students have worked on in strictly educational settings.

The Honors College planning committee for the exhibit includes Lefter Daku, Paul Heilker, Mary Helm, Kevin Jones, Christina McIntyre, and Sara Vandyke. Anne-Lise Velez and Enric Ruiz-Geli are co-curators of the Honors College exhibition.

The partnership between USM Furniture Systems and the Honors College will continue to develop in the lead-up the Venice Architectural Biennial Exhibition, which will debut in May 2025.