Sibella Court takes Design students on Design History Walking Tour
Our long-standing partnership with Sibella Court continues to deliver amazing opportunities for our students.
Not only has she co-developed a subject – the History of Interior Design and Decoration – and mentored interns from Billy Blue, but she also continuously engages with and sparks passion in our students.
Sibella Court Design Walking Tour
This year, Sibella conducted an exclusive tour of Sydney’s key design hotspots for a class of Interior Design students. Seeing the city through the eyes of the world-renowned designer was as educational as it was inspiring.
On the day, students visited Caroline Simpson Library, The Big Dig archaeological site, Susannah Place Museum and Longs Lane in The Rocks, where Sibella and her team at The Society Inc are currently working on a project.
Sibella Court Scholarship Recipient Jennifer Said joined the tour
One student who joined the tour was 2021 Sibella Court Interior Design Scholarship recipient Jennifer Said. Describing it as a rare opportunity to tap into the mind of a prominent interior designer, Jennifer was able to build on the insights she gained when she was personally mentored by Sibella as part of her scholarship.
“To engage with the extremely talented and experienced Sibella throughout my course means that I have been able to gain important insight into her unique thought process and design concept development,” says Jennifer.
“Learning about the way she draws inspiration from social, cultural and contextual histories has meant that other Billy Blue students and myself have been introduced to distinctive sources of information-gathering, resources and conceptual connections.”
Jennifer’s highlight of the walking tour? “Being the history lover that I am, I enjoyed visiting the Caroline Simpson Library and seeing objects that have been collected from as early as the 1800s,” says Jennifer, adding that seeing Sibella’s Longs Lane project was an eye-opening experience.
“Attending Longs Lane was like the final piece to the puzzle. The day leading up to this, we followed Sibella on her physical journey to concept development. We learnt about how she conducts research and what she gathers from it – but visiting her Longs Lane project was the final chapter.”
Connecting with industry as part of their studies, our students walk away with lifelong learnings they can apply to their own careers in the interior design industry – and Jennifer has already started. “Seeing Sibella interact with history and objects to turn concept into a reality is so unique,” she says. “Most turn to the internet for design research and inspiration, but to know that there is whole other world out there for designers to explore is so valuable.”
If you have a passion for interiors but haven’t taken that first step, there’s no better time.
