Sophomore class adds finishing touches to tiny house project

The sophomore interior design class is adding their final touches on their projects for the Sophomore Show. The show, also known as the Tiny House Exhibit, will be held April 20 through April 24 in the Tippetts Exhibit Hall in the Fine Arts-Visual building at Utah State University.

The exhibit has been held for the last 13 years and is a culmination of two semesters worth of work for the class.

Steven Mansfield, a senior lecturer in the program, said displaying the students projects is important because of how much time goes into them.

“It’s a huge project and we used to not do an exhibit,” he said. “But the work was so good and students hate to work that hard and never have the opportunity show it.”

Nikki Mullins, a student in the program, said this project has been difficult because of how detailed they have to be when creating the house.  

“It’s one of the harder projects of the year because it is so specific and you have to learn so many things,” she said. “There’s just a lot of things that go into building a house.”

Another student, Hailey Fonda, said she’s enjoyed having her ideas come to life.

“Before just the ideas were in your head,” she said. “But when it was rendered you could see it as a real space. You could actually see what it really looked like.”

Mullins said the project has stretched her creativity.

“We just started from lines on a paper and turned into a house, which is mind-blowing,” she said.

Mullins said every project is unique but her project is different from everyone else’s.

“So far it’s so different from anyone. Mine is seven floors and there’s an elevator,” she said. “It’s different but going good. I've definitely been challenged.”

Fonda said she likes that this program is structured differently from other programs offered at USU.

“It’s not like other majors where they tell you to write a paper. You get to express your own ideas and build things how you want them,” she said. “There’s not really a wrong or right, so there’s a certain amount of freedom.”

Fonda said she’s excited to show people what she’s done so far in the exhibit.

“Most people don’t think this major is very hard, but it’s a lot of work,”