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TAGASILinda Zupping is one of the interior architecture students with the longest academic career. A “forever student”, one might say, someone who has seen the discipline
develop under the tenure of four different department heads. It is thus quite natural that Linda, being the most experienced student, has been found deserving of the
Vello Asi student prize. Yet to continue on a serious note, the honour could have really been awarded at the start of her studies, because being previously engaged in electrical work, she stood apart from her fellow students in terms of her poetic inventor-like mindset. In her school work, this was often expressed in the unusually high standards she set for herself. Any project, no matter how small, had to tick several (10, really) boxes at once: be clever, simple, utopian, have something to say, and also be titillatingly edgy or even downright crazy. With this kind of maximalism, it isn’t surprising that her studies lasted longer than usual!
But we hope the reader will forgive this light ribbing – the amount of time spent in academia isn’t any sort of indicator, because we all are engaged in lifelong learning one way or another. But I would like to point out that in Linda’s case, devoting herself to studies seems to me to be a strategic decision. To be both a learner and teacher, a hybrid between the two roles, since she herself is supervising bachelor’s degree students, seems to be the ideal option, since it is good for the mind and body and the best sort of play. I think that strategic playfulness might also be a key to understanding and appreciating her signature style as an interior architect. A craftily, tastefully and steadily curated interplay of chance.
Gregor Taul
Associate Professor, Department of Interior Architecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts
