After recently releasing the 2024 FUTURE SHAPERS list, we took some time to catch up with our 2023 Next Work Environment Competition student winner Meaghan Maass!
Since winning the competition, Maass has been working as a full-time designer on the interiors team for HOK. Her submissions, ‘Mooi Modular Storage Units’ and ‘Ritual Wellness Center,’ showcase her passion for workplace design. Find out what she is up to now:
Her Winning Projects
Mooi modular units are units based on the premise of the new maximalism movement. Flexible and multi-functional, these units can be stacked, flipped and placed in multiple ways to function as shelves, storage units or even a seat. Creating a product such as Mooi aimed to promote flexibility in maximalism while filling a room with vibrant and rich colour. The units are clad in rich pops of gold, purple and teal colours to mesh seamlessly with any maximalist design. Mooi units feature a flat top (or bottom!) with top peaks on the opposite side. This design was inspired by an abstract version of rock formations. The units themselves are two feet wide, one and a half feet tall and one and a half feet deep.
The goal of Ritual is to encourage mental and physical rest for people suffering from academic and workplace burnout through the design of a wellness retreat
Ritual is focused on giving clients the resources and opportunities to hit the pause button and focus on themselves. Ritual is a culmination of a lush, relaxing, and tranquil spa experience meshed with mental health counseling services to assist clients who are experiencing academic and workplace burnout.
The Ritual experience is one of pure relaxation and recovery and promoting those habits to become a ritual in clients’ lives.
Catching Up
WDM Assistant Editor, Emily Ambery (EA): What has happened with the project since the competition?
Meaghan Maass (MM): The idea of Ritual hasn’t evolved much since the competition, it was my thesis project right before I graduated and was thrust into the real working world!
However, the idea of my MOOI storage units has had an exciting development! When I received this award I held a position at a residential design firm that specialized in millwork. As a fun project and learning experience they asked me to produce working drawings for the storage units, I didn’t expect them to actually be produced but one day I walked into their workshop and there was a stack of them! They gifted them to me and they now serve as a TV stand!
EA: If the idea has evolved, what were the changes and why?
MM: Through the process of the MOOI units being constructed, I have realized a few flaws in the design and how I would have liked to revise it. For example, the original design has a vertical panel in the center of the units. From a design perspective it gives the units a solid look, however in practice it hinders the storage ability of them, in the future I would remove this element to improve the flexibility of the units.
A Young Designer
EA: How did the competition help you as a student/young professional?
MM: Being selected as one of the winners for this competition was amazing and truly an honor. It has helped me gain recognition among professionals in the industry, this was especially helpful when I was a student trying to get her big break.
EA: What advice would you give to current students in interior design?
MM: Take a risk, ask a question and do not wait for someone to hold the door open for you. If you want an opportunity you have to make it for yourself.
Looking Ahead
EA: Tell us about what is to come!
MM: I have absolutely no idea, and I could not be more excited. I don’t know exactly what is to come but I do know my future is currently filled with opportunities to do some truly amazing things. I am so thrilled to be able to grow as a designer and have the help of this competition recognition along the way.
