CREDIT: ROUTLEDGE
Dr. Angela Bourne received triple honours at the IDEC Design and Knowledge conference. She received the award for Best Interior Design Educator Book of the Year, as well as a few other awards.

Dr. Angela Bourne, professor of interior design at Fanshawe, re­ceived triple honours at the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Design and Knowledge confer­ence. The conference was held in Chicago from March 8 until March 12 and included attendees from the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Mid­dle East.

The conference is a celebration of design, research and education and is an international conference that takes place annually. It allows attendees to network and connect with others in the field of interior design.

Bourne received the award for Best Interior Design Educator Book of the Year from IDEC and Inter­national Interior Design Associa­tion (IIDA), the IDEC scholarship excellence award and presented her seminar “Six Principles of In­clusive Tactile Design” at the con­ference. She also judged student and colleagues’ work from around the world and served as a secret re­viewer of sessions.

“It felt amazing to have my re­search and teaching excellence rec­ognized by educators and research­ers around the world,” Bourne said.

The IDEC book award recogniz­es books that exhibit excellence in addressing the discipline of interior design, including practice, research and education.

The scholarship excellence award recognizes achievement in the area of scholarship in relation to the interior environment and its contribution to the discipline.

Her book, Designing for Autism Spectrum Disorders, was pub­lished in May of 2016 and “aims to increase knowledge about the influence of natural and man-made environments on individuals with autism-spectrum disorders and oth­er forms of intellectual/develop­mental disabilities.”

The book was written as a trib­ute to Bourne’s older brother with Down Syndrome who passed away in 2009.

“This is my legacy to him. He taught me a lot as I taught him. He was two years older than me, he fol­lowed in my path and learned from me. I enjoyed helping him and his friends learn, socialize and develop intellectually,” Bourne said.

Bourne received her bachelor’s degree in interior design at Ryerson University and has been a professor of interior design at Fanshawe since 1999. She received her masters of education from the University of Toronto and PhD in environmental design from Texas Tech University.

She attributes her passion for teaching to her students.

“I genuinely love to see them learning, developing a love for de­sign and getting good field-related jobs,” Bourne said.

Not only is Bourne a professor at Fanshawe, but she also is the pres­ident of Neuro-Considerate Design, a consulting company thats goal is to design optimal spaces for indi­viduals with neurodiversities such as autism.

Bourne explained that this type of research has enhanced her teach­ing and pushes Fanshawe’s degree program to compete at an interna­tional level.

“My research brings aware­ness to designing for diversity… [it] helps designers and architects create spaces that enable people to be the best they can be regardless of their abilities. It fills a gap and address topics the building codes do not address: silent disabilities,” Bourne said.

Bourne has also contributed to her work in book and journal pub­lications, book reviews, teaching materials and curriculum, online materials, reports and non-peer re­viewed periodicals.