Background & Interests

Roberto Rengel came to academia after spending 15 years in commercial interior design practice. His professional work focused on corporate design and included designs for clients such as IBM, Chase, Bank of America, Sohio Petroleum, Nations Bank, Citicorp, KPMG Peat Marwick, Coca Cola, and Disney Corporation.

Areas of Research interest include Architectural Space, Design Process, and Workplace design.  Among his research projects are the development of a methodology to address visual character with corporate clients, the relationship of music, systems research and architecture, and a study of the typology of the workplace in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.

He is the author of Shaping Interior Space (2003) and is working on manuscripts for books on office design and concept development in interiors.  He teaches courses on professional practice, office design, portfolio preparation, and placemaking.

Instruction

• DS 545: Placemaking
• DS 622: Interior Design 3: Commercial Design
• DS 624: Portfolio Preparation

Graduate Student Research Topics

The general foci of research conducted by Robert's advisees are: design visualization and application, and design issues. Past thesis titles include:

• New Life for Old Buildings
• Fashion Center in Madison: A Case Study of Transparency and Adaptability as Vehicles of Engagement in Design
• Architecture and Christopher Alexander: Communication of Wholeness in Two Contemporary Buildings
• Choice, Experience, and Transformation: Space as Metaphor