Shashi Caan
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Shashi Caan a design futurist, educator and
author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
, her dedication to furthering human betterment through and by
design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
is reflected in her 25-year design career.


Biography

Shashi Caan is of Indian origin and was educated at the
Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...
, Scotland, BFA(Hons), and later at
Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, two master’s degrees, the first in
Industrial Design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...
and the second in
Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
.


Professional practice

Shashi Caan is the founding partner of ''THE COLLECTIVE US/THE SC COLLECTIVE UK'' which provides architecture, interior, workplace, and product design solutions focusing on supporting people both pragmatically and qualitatively. In 2013, Shashi Caan also founded GloW-DESIGN (Globally We Design), a platform whose purpose is to generate and disseminate new design thinking, practice and processes to tackle the ever more pressing and contemporary problems facing humanity at large. GloW-DESIGN is composed by five different programs: *Next-GenNarrative (NGN) creative leadership Think-Tank; *ReDesignEd Educators Forum; *World Youth Designer Program: include the World Youth Designer and World Youth Designer Forum (WYD + WYDF); *CoDesign from concept to reality – Design projects co-designed collaboratively in live time across the world; *GloW-Design expo – addressing design and market. In 2018, The GloW-DESIGN Educators Forum 2018 formulated the Universal Design Educators Charter as part of the ReDesignEd program. The Charter was created to provide a framework and filter through which design education and curricula are assessed, valued, and contextualized globally and collectively. The Charter is a collection of seven articles, six of them affirming a common global aspiration of achievement for all designers, and the last one a disclaimer. The essays address the areas of: *Culture change, *Knowledge and skills (education), *Sustainability, *Technology, *Acknowledgement (certification) and *Responsibility. The Universal Educational Charter recognizes that design impacts all aspects of life, therefore, it has to serve the endeavor for the betterment of human experience, quality of life, well-being, and happiness. The Universal Educational Charter recognizes that design impacts all aspects of life; therefore, it has to serve the endeavor for the betterment of human experience, quality of life, well-being, and happiness. Since the 1980s, Shashi Caan has held numerous teaching engagements at such institutions as Parson the New School for Design, in New York. From 2002-2007, Professor Caan was the Chair of the Interiors Program at Parsons and she served as the Faculty Trustee on the Board of Trustees for the
New York School of Interior Design New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) is a private college focused exclusively on interior design and located in New York City. The college offers certificate, three undergraduate, and four master's degree programs. Founded in 1916, it is l ...
. Caan is the current
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI), for which she was President from 2009 to 2014. During her presidency, in 2011, she conceived and helped to inaugurate the IFI Interiors Declaratio

This Declaration, initiated with input from 88 world counties. The Interiors Declaration has been adopted at city government level by some 124 world cities and two nations: the Philippines and Nigeria. She is the author of the book ''Rethinking Design and Interiors: Human Beings in the Built Environment'', (Laurence King publisher, 2011) which has also been translated into Chinese. Formerly she was Senior Designer and Associate with Gensle

and then Design Director and Associate Partner with Skidmore, Owings and Merril


Education

*
Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...
, University of Edinburgh, Scotland BFA(Hons); *
Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...
(MSArch), 1992; *Pratt Institute (MID – Master of Industrial Design); *Ph.D.(h.c.) from the New York School of Interior Design, 2010;


Career as Designer

*Senior Designer at Gensler; *Design Director and Associate Partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; *Founder and Principal, ''THE COLLECTIVE'' (2002–present); *Chair of Interior Design at
Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...
(2002-2007); *President of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI) (2009-2014); *CEO of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI) (2017 to present); *Founder of ''GloW-DESIGN'' (2013–present);


Recognition

*2013 JDP Design Ambassador to Japan; *2012 Golden Seat Architectural Master Award of China; *2006 International Facility Member Association (IFMA) Educator of the Year; *2004 U.S. Designer of the Year Contract Magazine, (Contract Magazine, January 2004);


Fellowships

*Fellow of IFI, 2014; *Fellow the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, 2014 *Honorary Fellow American Society of Interior Designers, 2015; *Honorary Fellow British Institute of Interior Design, 2014; *Honorary Fellow Design Institute of Australia, 2013; *Fellow Consejo Iberoamericano de Diseñadores de Interiores, 2013;


Independent Research and Exhibitions

*Spatial Color **Live Lab Experiment and Installation: Bridging the Art and Science of Color, Architectural Digest Home Show, New York, NY. Televised on the Today Show, March 2006 *Curator, "Fifty Shades of Green" 2000 **Sustainable Materials & Product Exhibit, Archeworks, Chicago, IL *Curator, "Virtual Color" 1997 **3D Color Exhibit, New York School of Interior Design, New York, NY. Televised on Channel 4 News, 1997 *Co-Curator, "Glamorous Green" 1997 **Environmental Product and Materials, AIA Interiors Committee & Material ConneXions, New York, NY *Co-Curator, "Surfaces" 1996 **Innovation in Architectural Materials, AIA Interiors Committee, NY, NY *Research Grant (Graduate Architecture Research) 1991 **Pittsburgh Corning Glass Corporation: Light/Color in Architecture


Juries and lectures

Shashi Caan has delivered dozens of keynotes and public lectures, along with serving on many of international design juries. Most recent juries include: *The Rigg Design Prize Jury, Melbourne, Australia (2018) *INDE Awards Asia Jury, Singapore (2018) *DFA Awards, Hong Kong Jury 2018.


Author / Publications

''Rethinking Design and Interiors: Human Being in the Built Environment'', Laurence King Publishing 2011 Over the last decade she has written some thirty articles, essays and critiques, published both in the US and internationally.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caan, Shashi American interior designers Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Pratt Institute faculty Design educators Living people American women interior designers Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics 21st-century American women American people of Indian descent