June 17, 2026 • 32 mins
In this inspiring episode of Teach Me Something, hosts DJ Prostyle and Penny Dellas welcome the Interior Design Chair at Berkeley College, a seasoned professional with a background in architecture and more than 30 years of industry experience. His career spans the design of diverse spaces within the built environment, bringing a unique perspective that bridges structural understanding with creative interior solutions.Listeners will gain insight into the evolution of the interior design industry, emerging trends shaping the future of the built environment, and the vision and growth of Berkeley College’s Interior Design program. The conversation also explores how the program equips students with both creative and technical skillsets, preparing them for successful careers in interior design and related fields.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what's up.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This is DJ pro Style and this is Penny tell
Us and this is teach Me Something.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Brought to you by Berkeley College.
Speaker 4 (00:07):
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to
Teach Me Something, presented by Berkeley College.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I am DJ pro Style.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I am Pennydellas, and today we are taking you
on a ride because we are exploring the world of design. Yes,
the spaces that shape how we live, how we work,
and how we connect.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Are you excited?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm excited about this.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And also, you have such a nice tan from vacation
and you're always saying that I'm the only with the trovels.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Look at you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
All.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We do travel a lot.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Me going on one trip is nothing compared to your
like seven or eight within two.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, well you know, prom All I'm gonna say is, anyways,
we need to book the podcast international.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
That's all I'm saying is as we get into summertime
and this weather gets nicer, I expect tans.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh okay, this is uh all right, guys, you heard
the demand is tans For those of you that are listening.
Pro back from Puerto Rico with a beautiful tan. He's
wearing a nice sky blue outfit, you know, really nice.
But you know we're deviating because we have a guest.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And you know, which is from somewhere where I want
to travel to.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
By the way, I'm going to be there all summer.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
Yes, so I'm going to be a batical you're going
out there'll be there also.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Nice, So we have to go on around there is
literally Yeah, I would say, let's talk about where he's
talking about and where he's talk about what.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He's talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So we have the chair for the interior design program
for Berkeley College in the building.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Welcome Alfonso.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
What appreunciate? That was perfect, Kenny, That sounds a perfect Italian.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, she's a professional. She practices and stuff. Thanks for
having me, really good, Thanks for being fun.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
It's good.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
It's fun, and it's good to be talking about our program.
But it's also good to be talking about anything. Right,
it's springtime. It's eighty degrees.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's eighty degrees in the city today, it's insane. Wearing
nice walk here. I know next next week will be fifty,
so let's enjoy it. Let's enjoy it.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
By time this air is we'll be wearing Jack again
listening to this exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
But but it's funny.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So your background is architecture, and he already came in
and started saying, well, we should change this arm so
that it's cool when you have professionals come in and
they're like.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
No, yours is best from above.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, they just actually, well they moved it was on
that side, so and then he moved it to that side.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I don't know why, but it's fine.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well, yeah, well we'll survive it.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
There's so many different studios here that have different styles.
Oh there's somebody come from yeah, yeah, there's some that
come out of the desk.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, do a tour after yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
When I've seen some famous people come up as well.
Yeah yeah good, yeah, awesome, y thanks for inviting me, Ben.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
This is so cool.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But you know what, before we get into Berkeley College,
your background wasn't architecture, So how do you go from
architect to interior design to interior design and higher education.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm so curious.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Well, it's it's quite simple. Interior design. There is no
such thing as interior design, exterior design, or global design.
This design and architecture encompasses all of that Interior design
developed as a ramification out of architecture, just because there's
so many variables to cover in design that it's impossible
(03:14):
to cover them all in one office. One architect cannot
cover them all, and so the branches started developing and
we started to specialize on.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
The various parts of architecture, so interior architecture, exterior architecture,
take away, interior and exterior. It's architecture, which is making spaces.
That's what it's all about.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
So how did I become interior Well, it started just
because I was commissioned back nineteen ninety three for this
really beautiful job outside of Rome, Italy, and I was
here at the time working as an architect, and I
had to I couldn't give up on it, so I
(04:01):
took the job. And it was basically thirty thousand square
meters fifteenth century villa that needed to be renovated. So
I told my wife at the time, she was a scientist,
that ros she says, you want to go to Italy
for a little bit.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
How long, I don't know, maybe a year or so.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Eleven years later, Wow, we've been there ninety three and
we came back in two thousand and four eleven years,
three kids later, and a lot of experience, And most
of this was interior design stuff, interior architecture, but it
was also architecture and dealing with outside and dealing with
historical preservation and just dealing with history in general.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
And I love history.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
My higher education is in history of architecture because I
really felt that growing up in Rome gave me the
foundation to understand the importance of history. Everything has been
done out there and it's just for us to go
look at it and learn from it. You learn history,
you learn how to analyze, to lize existing conditions, and
(05:01):
therefore how to put your concepts, your design concepts, into effect.
So history is a really big part of our world
history and culture, and I believe that firmly, and I
brought that into our program at Berkeley College immediately twenty
years ago when I started two courses that tried to
give our students the importance of understanding history and culture
(05:25):
if you want to become a design I wrote an
article on that as well.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And it's amazing because you know, when you travel, and
I've been blessed enough to go to like I haven't
been in Italy, so and Rome is all my bucket
list of places I really want to go to and
to see the calcium and everything that's out there. And
just so many things in Europe are so beautiful and
they're so historic and all the structures, and we have
a lot here in New York. I know we talk
(05:51):
about because people always people think that we don't have
that here. There's so much of it here in New
York that we need to visit and I want to
bring my kids to. But something about when you're out
of town, maybe because you're just your mindset, you're like
a tourist, so you want to go see those things
versus in your home, you don't go.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
See itly Grease, there's so much history everywhere you look,
everywhere you turn.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
It's in the architecture and how they build things and
back then and how you preserve it.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
And it all came over.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
Yeah, it all came over right in the eighteen hundreds
and they recreated the revival styles. So you walk around
New York City and you see it, Yeah, you see
it really is every blascycle, you see the Neo Gothic, right,
Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Your eyes probably see things so much different, right, and
it's like we're just walking around and seeing buildings, but
he's actually he understands, like the style of this is that,
and that this and this was built like this.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
We need to do a tour, like a walking tour
in the city.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
That would be with him.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, that would be cooled.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
That was the idea of opening up in theory design
in New York City.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
The resources are immense.
Speaker 6 (06:52):
You're teaching a history class of history too, which is
contemporary times. You just go down and you walk around
and they see it first. And when I was teaching
in Rome, because I thought there as well, when I
was teaching the classical world, you just walk around. You
save a lot of talking, a lot of lecturing. Very
you know, everything's right there for you to observe, to
(07:14):
take it in, digest it yours, just you know, make.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
It yours completely.
Speaker 6 (07:21):
I took a lot of time my students to Greece
as well, because it starts, you know, the classical world
started with Greeks, and then the Romans made it better.
We brought it to the next level, but it did
start there. And if you want to learn about it,
you gotta start in Greece, you know. That's that's a
beautiful trip that students.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
My favorite place to go to Greece is the Temple
of Poseidon and you're on a cliff and the sky
just opens, like you feel like the gods are there.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Yeah, but thinking about it because.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
It's it's private.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know, you go in, you book your tour, whatever
the case may be. But there's on the ground because
they're restoring constantly, and you look and.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
You think, how did they do this?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
So symmetrical because each line is aliineated like to precision,
and you're like.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Back without equipment, But how did they do this?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Somebody was it's insane and you're touching a column that
you're like, this has been here for they didn't have
the right. So it's definitely interesting when you're looking at
these phenomenons and thinking how did they do this? Like
the Pyramids, right, that's that's always the thing of So.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
You're reinforcing my counsel, Was it gods?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Was it aliens? We don't know, but they did it.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
It's there, you know, yeah there, and it's for us
to learn from.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
So even the Pyramids, they talk about those cylinders that
went deep into the ground or something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And beneath them interesting stuff.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
So yeah, Greece is definitely a place to visit. Italy
is definitely a place to visit as well. It was
interesting about Italy is the diversity aspect of Italy is
composed of twenty regions, the most regions of any European countries,
and each of those regions are a different country, different languages,
different food, different culture.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
It's crazy how diverse itly is.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
And this is all coming out of the Roman Empire,
right the Middle Ages, where all these little city states
had to sort of make themselves, create themselves, defend themselves
from each other. And so they created all these little
city states competing with each other to who would build
the bigger cathedral, who would build the bigger monuments, and
(09:37):
so it was competition, and the craftsmanship obviously was what
it was just because technology wasn't there, so you had
to really do it all with your hands. And we
should never forget that, I think learning from that and
going and bringing it into the present, right, I always
say that, And that's what's basically happening all the time
in the world of design, you know, combin where we're
(10:01):
coming from into where we are past and the present.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Which has to be pretty interesting now with the technology
and with you know, being able to type things in
like being able like this.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
We just talk about three.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
D printer and it's funny. My son, my son loves.
We talk about my son possibly getting into architecture as
he gets older because he loves.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
We've this, We've already got him to two of these printers.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
He's creating. He makes toys. When somebody's birthday, he gives them.
He makes the toys for them, He makes them at home.
He's putting them together and he's and they're coming out
like this and he's giving them. And uh, now the technology,
like even for buildings, things now must be like I say,
easier obviously, but compared to back then. So now I'm
sure you could structurally make things right to fit into
(10:46):
certain areas and stuff like that, versus doing it by hand.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Shout out to Julia Hudginson, our graphic design chair. She
was on season one, Season two, but she made us
a light box for those of you that are listening
and can't see, so we'll put it online now.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
But Berkeley College Graphic Design, the party, how did it go?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And I don't know if I'm jumping.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
But how did you go from living in Rome and
from working that to Berkeley College?
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Well, I was here first went.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Were you with Berkeley prior to No, No, no, No.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Berkeley College came when I came back from Italy in
two thousand and four. I was already teaching there for
eleven years. I came back and I understood that combining
the profession and teaching was going to be part of
my life. I needed to have both, keeping the academics
and the whole cultural aspect and the profession, so I
always kept them both fermenting. Yeah, and when I came back,
(11:37):
I just applied to some colleges and Berkeley College hired me,
hired me full time right away after my interview, and
they just gave me a full time job and that's it.
And then I married the cause and tried to build
the interior design department as strong as possible. It spent
twenty years.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That's great.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
September two thousand.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
And after Berkeley so co and we just started in
the city, I mean a year and a half ago.
And again just because of the resources that you have
in the city, you know, showrooms, GMS, buildings.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Just everything that step away fer menting environment.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Which hopefully, you know, it'll help our students become better designers.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And our New York City campus is on Fifth Avenue,
forty third three East forty third Street and Fifth Avenue
by the New York Public Library, which is a scene
on its own and architecture. What modalities can we take
the courses? Is it on site, online a blend of both.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Well, you could do both.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
We have on site in New York City and in
New Jersey at Woodland Park and online and we have
students on an online program from everywhere in the world,
everywhere in the United States, but we even have students
from around the world that take our program.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
The online program is doing really well.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
It's two different experiences, right The on site is different.
It's more hands on. It's a studio based and you
get that studio experience, that office experience because of the
faculty that we have that bring their profession to the classroom.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
That's that's a big aspect of our our program.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
That's a differentiator. We have industry experts that are teaching you.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
You bring you bring the you bring the expertise to
the studio and this and the moment the students here,
you say this is a real life project that we're
actually working on. Their ears just go wide open and
they pay attention immediately. So the face to face, as
we were saying before, it's always a nicer.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Way to communicate.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
Now, the online has grown tremendously as well, and I've
been dedicating a lot of time to our online program
just to make it as close as possible to the
on site experience, and I think we got there. We
brought it to a decent level where uh and I
think the major aspect of the success of our online
program is making the check ins with your professor mandatory,
(14:13):
so that you can't just be behind the computer screen
and hand in your work and do it on your own.
There's a weekly mandatory check in that it forces you
to connect.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
And chat that resource.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Use it.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
It's good, you got the resource, use it, get it going,
and it's really helping our students.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Do a lot better on the online program as well.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
The inside in New York City is exciting because, like
we were saying before, you're teaching a history two class,
so you're teaching a studio design of a commercial two studio,
and you can just walk around and earn you go
to a museum.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I want a history walk. Let's let's do it. Yeah,
take a really, let's take the pot for a walk.
That would be so cool. You laugh when I send
that email.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So tomorrow, of course you would pick five pmpenny.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
They kind of answered the next question, which was how
does the program prepare students with both the creative and
technical skill sets needed to succeed in today's competitive design landscape?
You know, and I think by giving them that, you know.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
It's really the program is designed to as a combination
of technical and creative, which is basically what architecture is.
Architects are artists, they're Kandinskys, but they also have to
be engineers. So you can't just make a painting and
(15:39):
get inspired for whatever you're trying to express and it
stays at a painting, so it's never going to fail.
The architecture component of it, the technical component of it,
is translating that creative act and the painting into a
space into a place, which then gives you the responsibility
(16:04):
for safety well being, right, creating a space where people
live and they feel safe and they feel psychologically comfortable
without this bar in front of your eyes.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
We have to figure out we need a float, so
that's what.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
So then you need the mathematical physical aspects which we
call technical technical aspects to be able to get that
creative inspiration and translate it into a works.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
A space, a place. That's why they need both.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
And so we combine with creative aspects, which is sketching,
color history.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
Right.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
We continuously implement every studio, not just from Studio one,
but all the way to Studio eight, a sketchbook. We
always push them to sketch freehand before they dive into
the computer software, just because the freehand sketching develops that
(17:12):
creative part of your brain in a different way, and
then you kind of translate it and then obviously you
use technology to make it happen. But people that think
that technology is taken over for humans, especially in architecture,
I'm sorry. They're not taking over. It's helping us, the
(17:33):
creative mind, to be able to represent our ideas in.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
A better way. That's all.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example.
I used to teach a course that was called Advanced
Perspective and rendering. It was all by hand beautiful drafted
perspectives and renderings done by our students. The moment the
software became so perfect to be able to represent your ideas,
(18:04):
your concept like a photograph, that course did not make
sense anymore. So we're still keeping the freehand sketching and
the sketch books in every design process. But then the
moment the design is evolving from schematic design to design
(18:27):
development to a construction document, the technology comes in and
allows you to represent your ideas easier and better. So, yes,
technology is great. And so what I was saying before
combining the past with the present, you need to know
where you're coming from to understand.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Where you will be gone. And so we.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Cannot deny technology, right we can just say it doesn't exist.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
That will be stupid.
Speaker 6 (18:56):
It's like saying contemporary designs are representing who we are
and how we live today. Yeah, but I like the
classical Roman, classical Greece, I get it. But that was
them two thousand years ago. Can we learn something from
them and put it into who we are today. And
there's the combination of history and contemporary which is also
(19:20):
a trend that is going on today and always you know,
bringing history into contemporary way of life. But also never, never,
forgetting nature. Nature is coming back strong biophilic design, which
is basically the use of nature, plants, greens, just nature
(19:42):
in general to create that psychological soothing environment with which
nature always gives us. Right when you go away to
Greece on an island, where are you in the middle
of one hundred percent nature? And how does that make
you feel?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Water?
Speaker 6 (20:01):
So, bringing the biophilic this bringing the biophilic design into
our into our works is really contemporary today.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
It's happening.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
The colors of nature, the natural tones, just that feel,
the sounds you said it, water, wind, right, noise, natural noise.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
People today use those natural noise apps to fall asleep
right again.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
So the lesson is what let's learn from. Let's never
forget that nature is there for us to learn from
and to bring it into today's life, not forget it.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
It's not just this. Yeah, there's a lot more.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
This is part of our lives and we are definitely
and we understand that just like computers are and just
like three deep printers are, and all the technology that
we use them help us make things better. But to
get there, what our program does is it builds the
foundation and all of these aspects of the past of
(21:09):
history that will help you understand the combination of creative
and technical.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
And then.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
Knowing how to use the contemporary the softwares and the
technology to express your ideas. When people think that you
turn the computer on, you push a button and you're
getting the project, I'm sorry, that's not the case. Or
if students think that they can come and turn the
computer on and and the computer is going to do
(21:41):
the work for them, I'm sorry, that's not the case.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So that's some great sounds. I don't know about you.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
All, but I learned so much in this episode whole.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Everything you just said was such a great moment for
social media. That are you going to go.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Home and be like kids?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So the bio aesthetic of well you have good architecture,
your home.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Is well, my house.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Actually it's funny because my house is was from an
Italian I don't know who the designer was. We bought
it from the person who the person who built our
home where we live is the only house that looks
like our house. The rest of the whole neighborhood was
built by a builder who built the thing, and then
whoever built our house bought the land and brought in
a designer from Italy and they so our house is built.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
It looks like looks like a castle almost like it's
like three peaks.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
It has all those medieval it looks like a castle
to have like a contort.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
So to get to my drive, like I have to
drive through my house to get to the back where
the garages are, so like it.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Was built like that, like I need to see photos y.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
But and it's surrounded by nature, so like I live
in the woods, right, so like come outside.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It does bring a certain peace.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
We're gonna we're definitely doing the podcast at some point
in the backyard, but.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Make sure you call me.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, you you would probably point things out. So
there's a lot of structural stuff in our house and
a lot of design and in woodwork that you probably
would go in there and start pointing things out that
we didn't even know about it, you know, because nobody
pointed these things out when we bought the house.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
My wife just liked the bedroom.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
So you look that, like the space great, sounds like
they're great. You're the unique house on the block, which.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, totally different, Yeah, totally different.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
And but there's a lot of you could tell it
was built by somebody who really put a lot into
the architecture and design and and the little things in
the wood and have designs in the in the craftsmanship
and everything like that. It all matters. Yeah, it's old
school and I like it. It's not contemporary at all.
It's not a lot of woodwork, a lot of well yeah,
when I'm out there shoveling snow, I'm like, damn it.
(23:41):
I should have been a department, you know.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
But no.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
But yeah, I mean nature and and I like the
older things better, like the historical.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
And that's what I was trying to say.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
And what's interesting versus versus the contemporary.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
I know, but I know, but bringing bringing just think
about right, because you got that classical world in you.
You know, you got the Parthenon in you. Athens is
you know, that's it there it is.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Look at that.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
And you got you know, the sanctuary of a power.
And the whole classical philosophy is amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
You know how they combine you know, learning.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
From nature and all of the activities that they have
in nature. You know, they combine a god, a god
to one of those activities, so you know, a god
that's protecting us in everything that we do. How beautiful
is that you have someone from above that's not human? Right,
(24:42):
But it's interesting how classical classical thinking combines human and God.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Speaking of design, have traveled to other continents during this episode,
and we've gotten a history lesson of different architecture across Europe.
This is phenomenal Cape. Soon you guys go there, trust me,
trust me. You know what I'm gonna post on the
Instagram pod dot teach me something. We'll post some photos
(25:11):
a blast trip that we did over there.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
It's really nice.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
When you say we did, you mean you yourself and
your family. Yeah, because I've been over here.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yes, it's okay. For we're gonna we're gonna take it.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
We're gonna get to Athens and take it from there.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It's gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Well, you know, we've been waiting for our kids to
get a little older to take them on the trip.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
We weren't trying to go out.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
There with it's smart. It's smart, way too.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Much because I spent the whole summer in Greece, so
I know what it is. And I and and you know,
my my mom's from my Greek side of my family
is from it's from not from this little town called
which is like in the mountains and like, so from
last time I was there, it was like a six
hour trip on buses. Now this is like an hour
and a half because they cut like a path through
the mountain and everything to get there.
Speaker 6 (25:50):
So you celebrated the Orthodox Easter this past Sunday, which
was in a week after the Catholic.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Yep, all extra week of not it's in different calendars.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Rack of lamb. Yeah, yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
So but yeah, you don't want to go out there
when the kids small, because you want to go.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I want you want to, They want to this the thing.
You want them to be able to understand what you're
looking at. There's so much I want to be able
to be so sufficient to you know, carry I.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Don't want to carry the kids on hikes up and downstairs.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
And yes, yeah, you know I did bring my kids
when they were little, but we were living there, so
it wasn't really track. There was taking a Sunday afternoon
stroll to the Colosseum. It wasn't like flying to the Colosseum.
And all of the difficulties of taking kids when you
live there is different, so they assimilate and it stayed
within my kids. They always love to go back. They
(26:46):
go to back Italy tis years. They just have it
in them. And it's that culture that really stays with you.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
That we got to get out there.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I know we've been just doing the Caribbean Islands for
too much.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I know.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
We love you guys.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
In truth, teach me something fashion Alfonso, if you could
describe what you would want your legacy to be in
one word, what would.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
That be my legacy? Have a teacher in general.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
You can choose an avenue you want the teacher that.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I Mean we asked the tough questions here, but.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
It's not a tough question. It's the question is great.
It's just the Yeah, it's profound because if you think
of all the different avenues, then it's like in one word,
since we're talking about education, I think my legacy, what
makes me, what kept me going as an educator is
the fact that I know that I influenced hundreds and
(27:50):
hundreds of students mm that probably I don't even remember.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
And what made me.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Continue as and educators that I know that at one
point in their developmental life I influenced their vision of
the world by showing the world to them from an
architectural standpoint of view. And so when you see these
(28:21):
students that come in raw, their raw, knowing nothing about
the built world, and then leaving and looking at the
world with different eyes. What you were saying before, like
looking at things with different eyes is what I want
to be remembered as from all of those students that
(28:41):
I think at one point in their lives, as they
grow and become adults and they get their own family,
they go back and say, professor to you know, I
remember that one particular time that he made me see
that one aspect of architecture that I didn't even know
it existed. So that that's probably what makes me happy
to that.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
That's beautiful influence. And I'm sure you have and I'm
sure they do, so.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
The word would be influence.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
I was there. Yeah, yeah, So that's probably the reason why.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
And I think when you become a teacher, you you
have to feel that that way. It's like you're like
a missionary, and so you're you're helping people become professionals,
especially in this profession where you're learning something physical. You're
not leaving Berkeley College in Tier design department with a
(29:35):
lot of theory. No. No, you're leaving Berkeley College in
tior design department with a lot of hands on practice
and real experience, so that you can go out there
into the world and choose whatever ramification you want into
the architectural construction industry and and go do your thing.
(29:58):
You can work in an architectural off interior design office.
You can work in products architectural product sales, which they
make so much money you know, you don't even know it.
Or in the manufacturing industry right furniture design and manufacturing,
lighting design and manufacturing, you name it. Worst scenario. If
(30:20):
you know you're really stuck and you can get a job,
you go into the home depots or lows and you
get a job in the aspects of design because they
have kitchen design, they have bad design, that have construction materials,
products sales, because the moment you understand architecture and the
materials and products that come with it, you're not just
(30:41):
a salesperson that is trying. They're hard, trying too hard.
I don't like salespeople too much. They try too hard
to sell you something. What I'm talking about is my
students will be able to talk about the materials and
the products in a different way, in a professional way,
which will catch the buyer's attention. So so that's really
(31:03):
what we try to do.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So he's sending them out prepared, right they are.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
They are work.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Ready when they leave him, they're ready, they.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Are work ready.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
If you want to learn more about the interior Design
program at Berkeley College, visit w w W dot Berkeley
College dot E d U, or you can go to
the social media pages at Berkeley College b.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
E r K, E L E Y. Thank y'all for
visiting us.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
This has been great for inviting me, and I look
for I look forward to this, this tour that we're
going to go on the.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Next time, next time over a gless of wine.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, I want the whole experience, correct experience. Yeah yeah,
all right, you know what, let's just meet in Rome somewhere.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Let's go to put it on your card, penny, Okay, great,
I heart.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Check it in.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Well.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Thank you guys for watching and listening to teach me
something presented by Berkeley College. See you next time.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
All right, bye guys, bye.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Bye, hey, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Tune in next week for all new episode of teach
me Something brought to you by Berkeley College
Hey, what's up.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This is DJ pro Style and this is Penny tell
Us and this is teach Me Something.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Brought to you by Berkeley College.
Speaker 4 (00:07):
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to
Teach Me Something, presented by Berkeley College.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I am DJ pro Style.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I am Pennydellas, and today we are taking you
on a ride because we are exploring the world of design. Yes,
the spaces that shape how we live, how we work,
and how we connect.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Are you excited?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm excited about this.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And also, you have such a nice tan from vacation
and you're always saying that I'm the only with the trovels.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Look at you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
All.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We do travel a lot.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Me going on one trip is nothing compared to your
like seven or eight within two.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, well you know, prom All I'm gonna say is, anyways,
we need to book the podcast international.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
That's all I'm saying is as we get into summertime
and this weather gets nicer, I expect tans.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh okay, this is uh all right, guys, you heard
the demand is tans For those of you that are listening.
Pro back from Puerto Rico with a beautiful tan. He's
wearing a nice sky blue outfit, you know, really nice.
But you know we're deviating because we have a guest.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And you know, which is from somewhere where I want
to travel to.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
By the way, I'm going to be there all summer.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
Yes, so I'm going to be a batical you're going
out there'll be there also.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Nice, So we have to go on around there is
literally Yeah, I would say, let's talk about where he's
talking about and where he's talk about what.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He's talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So we have the chair for the interior design program
for Berkeley College in the building.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Welcome Alfonso.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
What appreunciate? That was perfect, Kenny, That sounds a perfect Italian.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, she's a professional. She practices and stuff. Thanks for
having me, really good, Thanks for being fun.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
It's good.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
It's fun, and it's good to be talking about our program.
But it's also good to be talking about anything. Right,
it's springtime. It's eighty degrees.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's eighty degrees in the city today, it's insane. Wearing
nice walk here. I know next next week will be fifty,
so let's enjoy it. Let's enjoy it.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
By time this air is we'll be wearing Jack again
listening to this exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
But but it's funny.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So your background is architecture, and he already came in
and started saying, well, we should change this arm so
that it's cool when you have professionals come in and
they're like.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
No, yours is best from above.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, they just actually, well they moved it was on
that side, so and then he moved it to that side.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I don't know why, but it's fine.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well, yeah, well we'll survive it.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
There's so many different studios here that have different styles.
Oh there's somebody come from yeah, yeah, there's some that
come out of the desk.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, do a tour after yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
When I've seen some famous people come up as well.
Yeah yeah good, yeah, awesome, y thanks for inviting me, Ben.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
This is so cool.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But you know what, before we get into Berkeley College,
your background wasn't architecture, So how do you go from
architect to interior design to interior design and higher education.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm so curious.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Well, it's it's quite simple. Interior design. There is no
such thing as interior design, exterior design, or global design.
This design and architecture encompasses all of that Interior design
developed as a ramification out of architecture, just because there's
so many variables to cover in design that it's impossible
(03:14):
to cover them all in one office. One architect cannot
cover them all, and so the branches started developing and
we started to specialize on.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
The various parts of architecture, so interior architecture, exterior architecture,
take away, interior and exterior. It's architecture, which is making spaces.
That's what it's all about.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
So how did I become interior Well, it started just
because I was commissioned back nineteen ninety three for this
really beautiful job outside of Rome, Italy, and I was
here at the time working as an architect, and I
had to I couldn't give up on it, so I
(04:01):
took the job. And it was basically thirty thousand square
meters fifteenth century villa that needed to be renovated. So
I told my wife at the time, she was a scientist,
that ros she says, you want to go to Italy
for a little bit.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
How long, I don't know, maybe a year or so.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Eleven years later, Wow, we've been there ninety three and
we came back in two thousand and four eleven years,
three kids later, and a lot of experience, And most
of this was interior design stuff, interior architecture, but it
was also architecture and dealing with outside and dealing with
historical preservation and just dealing with history in general.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
And I love history.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
My higher education is in history of architecture because I
really felt that growing up in Rome gave me the
foundation to understand the importance of history. Everything has been
done out there and it's just for us to go
look at it and learn from it. You learn history,
you learn how to analyze, to lize existing conditions, and
(05:01):
therefore how to put your concepts, your design concepts, into effect.
So history is a really big part of our world
history and culture, and I believe that firmly, and I
brought that into our program at Berkeley College immediately twenty
years ago when I started two courses that tried to
give our students the importance of understanding history and culture
(05:25):
if you want to become a design I wrote an
article on that as well.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And it's amazing because you know, when you travel, and
I've been blessed enough to go to like I haven't
been in Italy, so and Rome is all my bucket
list of places I really want to go to and
to see the calcium and everything that's out there. And
just so many things in Europe are so beautiful and
they're so historic and all the structures, and we have
a lot here in New York. I know we talk
(05:51):
about because people always people think that we don't have
that here. There's so much of it here in New
York that we need to visit and I want to
bring my kids to. But something about when you're out
of town, maybe because you're just your mindset, you're like
a tourist, so you want to go see those things
versus in your home, you don't go.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
See itly Grease, there's so much history everywhere you look,
everywhere you turn.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
It's in the architecture and how they build things and
back then and how you preserve it.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
And it all came over.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
Yeah, it all came over right in the eighteen hundreds
and they recreated the revival styles. So you walk around
New York City and you see it, Yeah, you see
it really is every blascycle, you see the Neo Gothic, right,
Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Your eyes probably see things so much different, right, and
it's like we're just walking around and seeing buildings, but
he's actually he understands, like the style of this is that,
and that this and this was built like this.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
We need to do a tour, like a walking tour
in the city.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
That would be with him.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, that would be cooled.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
That was the idea of opening up in theory design
in New York City.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
The resources are immense.
Speaker 6 (06:52):
You're teaching a history class of history too, which is
contemporary times. You just go down and you walk around
and they see it first. And when I was teaching
in Rome, because I thought there as well, when I
was teaching the classical world, you just walk around. You
save a lot of talking, a lot of lecturing. Very
you know, everything's right there for you to observe, to
(07:14):
take it in, digest it yours, just you know, make.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
It yours completely.
Speaker 6 (07:21):
I took a lot of time my students to Greece
as well, because it starts, you know, the classical world
started with Greeks, and then the Romans made it better.
We brought it to the next level, but it did
start there. And if you want to learn about it,
you gotta start in Greece, you know. That's that's a
beautiful trip that students.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
My favorite place to go to Greece is the Temple
of Poseidon and you're on a cliff and the sky
just opens, like you feel like the gods are there.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Yeah, but thinking about it because.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
It's it's private.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know, you go in, you book your tour, whatever
the case may be. But there's on the ground because
they're restoring constantly, and you look and.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
You think, how did they do this?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
So symmetrical because each line is aliineated like to precision,
and you're like.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Back without equipment, But how did they do this?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Somebody was it's insane and you're touching a column that
you're like, this has been here for they didn't have
the right. So it's definitely interesting when you're looking at
these phenomenons and thinking how did they do this? Like
the Pyramids, right, that's that's always the thing of So.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
You're reinforcing my counsel, Was it gods?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Was it aliens? We don't know, but they did it.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
It's there, you know, yeah there, and it's for us
to learn from.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
So even the Pyramids, they talk about those cylinders that
went deep into the ground or something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And beneath them interesting stuff.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
So yeah, Greece is definitely a place to visit. Italy
is definitely a place to visit as well. It was
interesting about Italy is the diversity aspect of Italy is
composed of twenty regions, the most regions of any European countries,
and each of those regions are a different country, different languages,
different food, different culture.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
It's crazy how diverse itly is.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
And this is all coming out of the Roman Empire,
right the Middle Ages, where all these little city states
had to sort of make themselves, create themselves, defend themselves
from each other. And so they created all these little
city states competing with each other to who would build
the bigger cathedral, who would build the bigger monuments, and
(09:37):
so it was competition, and the craftsmanship obviously was what
it was just because technology wasn't there, so you had
to really do it all with your hands. And we
should never forget that, I think learning from that and
going and bringing it into the present, right, I always
say that, And that's what's basically happening all the time
in the world of design, you know, combin where we're
(10:01):
coming from into where we are past and the present.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Which has to be pretty interesting now with the technology
and with you know, being able to type things in
like being able like this.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
We just talk about three.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
D printer and it's funny. My son, my son loves.
We talk about my son possibly getting into architecture as
he gets older because he loves.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
We've this, We've already got him to two of these printers.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
He's creating. He makes toys. When somebody's birthday, he gives them.
He makes the toys for them, He makes them at home.
He's putting them together and he's and they're coming out
like this and he's giving them. And uh, now the technology,
like even for buildings, things now must be like I say,
easier obviously, but compared to back then. So now I'm
sure you could structurally make things right to fit into
(10:46):
certain areas and stuff like that, versus doing it by hand.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Shout out to Julia Hudginson, our graphic design chair. She
was on season one, Season two, but she made us
a light box for those of you that are listening
and can't see, so we'll put it online now.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
But Berkeley College Graphic Design, the party, how did it go?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And I don't know if I'm jumping.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
But how did you go from living in Rome and
from working that to Berkeley College?
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Well, I was here first went.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Were you with Berkeley prior to No, No, no, No.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Berkeley College came when I came back from Italy in
two thousand and four. I was already teaching there for
eleven years. I came back and I understood that combining
the profession and teaching was going to be part of
my life. I needed to have both, keeping the academics
and the whole cultural aspect and the profession, so I
always kept them both fermenting. Yeah, and when I came back,
(11:37):
I just applied to some colleges and Berkeley College hired me,
hired me full time right away after my interview, and
they just gave me a full time job and that's it.
And then I married the cause and tried to build
the interior design department as strong as possible. It spent
twenty years.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That's great.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
September two thousand.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
And after Berkeley so co and we just started in
the city, I mean a year and a half ago.
And again just because of the resources that you have
in the city, you know, showrooms, GMS, buildings.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Just everything that step away fer menting environment.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Which hopefully, you know, it'll help our students become better designers.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And our New York City campus is on Fifth Avenue,
forty third three East forty third Street and Fifth Avenue
by the New York Public Library, which is a scene
on its own and architecture. What modalities can we take
the courses? Is it on site, online a blend of both.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Well, you could do both.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
We have on site in New York City and in
New Jersey at Woodland Park and online and we have
students on an online program from everywhere in the world,
everywhere in the United States, but we even have students
from around the world that take our program.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
The online program is doing really well.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
It's two different experiences, right The on site is different.
It's more hands on. It's a studio based and you
get that studio experience, that office experience because of the
faculty that we have that bring their profession to the classroom.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
That's that's a big aspect of our our program.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
That's a differentiator. We have industry experts that are teaching you.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
You bring you bring the you bring the expertise to
the studio and this and the moment the students here,
you say this is a real life project that we're
actually working on. Their ears just go wide open and
they pay attention immediately. So the face to face, as
we were saying before, it's always a nicer.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Way to communicate.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
Now, the online has grown tremendously as well, and I've
been dedicating a lot of time to our online program
just to make it as close as possible to the
on site experience, and I think we got there. We
brought it to a decent level where uh and I
think the major aspect of the success of our online
program is making the check ins with your professor mandatory,
(14:13):
so that you can't just be behind the computer screen
and hand in your work and do it on your own.
There's a weekly mandatory check in that it forces you
to connect.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
And chat that resource.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Use it.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
It's good, you got the resource, use it, get it going,
and it's really helping our students.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Do a lot better on the online program as well.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
The inside in New York City is exciting because, like
we were saying before, you're teaching a history two class,
so you're teaching a studio design of a commercial two studio,
and you can just walk around and earn you go
to a museum.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I want a history walk. Let's let's do it. Yeah,
take a really, let's take the pot for a walk.
That would be so cool. You laugh when I send
that email.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So tomorrow, of course you would pick five pmpenny.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
They kind of answered the next question, which was how
does the program prepare students with both the creative and
technical skill sets needed to succeed in today's competitive design landscape?
You know, and I think by giving them that, you know.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
It's really the program is designed to as a combination
of technical and creative, which is basically what architecture is.
Architects are artists, they're Kandinskys, but they also have to
be engineers. So you can't just make a painting and
(15:39):
get inspired for whatever you're trying to express and it
stays at a painting, so it's never going to fail.
The architecture component of it, the technical component of it,
is translating that creative act and the painting into a
space into a place, which then gives you the responsibility
(16:04):
for safety well being, right, creating a space where people
live and they feel safe and they feel psychologically comfortable
without this bar in front of your eyes.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
We have to figure out we need a float, so
that's what.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
So then you need the mathematical physical aspects which we
call technical technical aspects to be able to get that
creative inspiration and translate it into a works.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
A space, a place. That's why they need both.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
And so we combine with creative aspects, which is sketching,
color history.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
Right.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
We continuously implement every studio, not just from Studio one,
but all the way to Studio eight, a sketchbook. We
always push them to sketch freehand before they dive into
the computer software, just because the freehand sketching develops that
(17:12):
creative part of your brain in a different way, and
then you kind of translate it and then obviously you
use technology to make it happen. But people that think
that technology is taken over for humans, especially in architecture,
I'm sorry. They're not taking over. It's helping us, the
(17:33):
creative mind, to be able to represent our ideas in.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
A better way. That's all.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example.
I used to teach a course that was called Advanced
Perspective and rendering. It was all by hand beautiful drafted
perspectives and renderings done by our students. The moment the
software became so perfect to be able to represent your ideas,
(18:04):
your concept like a photograph, that course did not make
sense anymore. So we're still keeping the freehand sketching and
the sketch books in every design process. But then the
moment the design is evolving from schematic design to design
(18:27):
development to a construction document, the technology comes in and
allows you to represent your ideas easier and better. So, yes,
technology is great. And so what I was saying before
combining the past with the present, you need to know
where you're coming from to understand.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Where you will be gone. And so we.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Cannot deny technology, right we can just say it doesn't exist.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
That will be stupid.
Speaker 6 (18:56):
It's like saying contemporary designs are representing who we are
and how we live today. Yeah, but I like the
classical Roman, classical Greece, I get it. But that was
them two thousand years ago. Can we learn something from
them and put it into who we are today. And
there's the combination of history and contemporary which is also
(19:20):
a trend that is going on today and always you know,
bringing history into contemporary way of life. But also never, never,
forgetting nature. Nature is coming back strong biophilic design, which
is basically the use of nature, plants, greens, just nature
(19:42):
in general to create that psychological soothing environment with which
nature always gives us. Right when you go away to
Greece on an island, where are you in the middle
of one hundred percent nature? And how does that make
you feel?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Water?
Speaker 6 (20:01):
So, bringing the biophilic this bringing the biophilic design into
our into our works is really contemporary today.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
It's happening.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
The colors of nature, the natural tones, just that feel,
the sounds you said it, water, wind, right, noise, natural noise.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
People today use those natural noise apps to fall asleep
right again.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
So the lesson is what let's learn from. Let's never
forget that nature is there for us to learn from
and to bring it into today's life, not forget it.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
It's not just this. Yeah, there's a lot more.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
This is part of our lives and we are definitely
and we understand that just like computers are and just
like three deep printers are, and all the technology that
we use them help us make things better. But to
get there, what our program does is it builds the
foundation and all of these aspects of the past of
(21:09):
history that will help you understand the combination of creative
and technical.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
And then.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
Knowing how to use the contemporary the softwares and the
technology to express your ideas. When people think that you
turn the computer on, you push a button and you're
getting the project, I'm sorry, that's not the case. Or
if students think that they can come and turn the
computer on and and the computer is going to do
(21:41):
the work for them, I'm sorry, that's not the case.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So that's some great sounds. I don't know about you.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
All, but I learned so much in this episode whole.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Everything you just said was such a great moment for
social media. That are you going to go.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Home and be like kids?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So the bio aesthetic of well you have good architecture,
your home.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Is well, my house.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Actually it's funny because my house is was from an
Italian I don't know who the designer was. We bought
it from the person who the person who built our
home where we live is the only house that looks
like our house. The rest of the whole neighborhood was
built by a builder who built the thing, and then
whoever built our house bought the land and brought in
a designer from Italy and they so our house is built.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
It looks like looks like a castle almost like it's
like three peaks.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
It has all those medieval it looks like a castle
to have like a contort.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
So to get to my drive, like I have to
drive through my house to get to the back where
the garages are, so like it.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Was built like that, like I need to see photos y.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
But and it's surrounded by nature, so like I live
in the woods, right, so like come outside.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It does bring a certain peace.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
We're gonna we're definitely doing the podcast at some point
in the backyard, but.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Make sure you call me.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, you you would probably point things out. So
there's a lot of structural stuff in our house and
a lot of design and in woodwork that you probably
would go in there and start pointing things out that
we didn't even know about it, you know, because nobody
pointed these things out when we bought the house.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
My wife just liked the bedroom.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
So you look that, like the space great, sounds like
they're great. You're the unique house on the block, which.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, totally different, Yeah, totally different.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
And but there's a lot of you could tell it
was built by somebody who really put a lot into
the architecture and design and and the little things in
the wood and have designs in the in the craftsmanship
and everything like that. It all matters. Yeah, it's old
school and I like it. It's not contemporary at all.
It's not a lot of woodwork, a lot of well yeah,
when I'm out there shoveling snow, I'm like, damn it.
(23:41):
I should have been a department, you know.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
But no.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
But yeah, I mean nature and and I like the
older things better, like the historical.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
And that's what I was trying to say.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
And what's interesting versus versus the contemporary.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
I know, but I know, but bringing bringing just think
about right, because you got that classical world in you.
You know, you got the Parthenon in you. Athens is
you know, that's it there it is.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Look at that.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
And you got you know, the sanctuary of a power.
And the whole classical philosophy is amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
You know how they combine you know, learning.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
From nature and all of the activities that they have
in nature. You know, they combine a god, a god
to one of those activities, so you know, a god
that's protecting us in everything that we do. How beautiful
is that you have someone from above that's not human? Right,
(24:42):
But it's interesting how classical classical thinking combines human and God.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Speaking of design, have traveled to other continents during this episode,
and we've gotten a history lesson of different architecture across Europe.
This is phenomenal Cape. Soon you guys go there, trust me,
trust me. You know what I'm gonna post on the
Instagram pod dot teach me something. We'll post some photos
(25:11):
a blast trip that we did over there.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
It's really nice.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
When you say we did, you mean you yourself and
your family. Yeah, because I've been over here.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yes, it's okay. For we're gonna we're gonna take it.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
We're gonna get to Athens and take it from there.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It's gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Well, you know, we've been waiting for our kids to
get a little older to take them on the trip.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
We weren't trying to go out.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
There with it's smart. It's smart, way too.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Much because I spent the whole summer in Greece, so
I know what it is. And I and and you know,
my my mom's from my Greek side of my family
is from it's from not from this little town called
which is like in the mountains and like, so from
last time I was there, it was like a six
hour trip on buses. Now this is like an hour
and a half because they cut like a path through
the mountain and everything to get there.
Speaker 6 (25:50):
So you celebrated the Orthodox Easter this past Sunday, which
was in a week after the Catholic.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Yep, all extra week of not it's in different calendars.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Rack of lamb. Yeah, yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
So but yeah, you don't want to go out there
when the kids small, because you want to go.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I want you want to, They want to this the thing.
You want them to be able to understand what you're
looking at. There's so much I want to be able
to be so sufficient to you know, carry I.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Don't want to carry the kids on hikes up and downstairs.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
And yes, yeah, you know I did bring my kids
when they were little, but we were living there, so
it wasn't really track. There was taking a Sunday afternoon
stroll to the Colosseum. It wasn't like flying to the Colosseum.
And all of the difficulties of taking kids when you
live there is different, so they assimilate and it stayed
within my kids. They always love to go back. They
(26:46):
go to back Italy tis years. They just have it
in them. And it's that culture that really stays with you.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
That we got to get out there.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I know we've been just doing the Caribbean Islands for
too much.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I know.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
We love you guys.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
In truth, teach me something fashion Alfonso, if you could
describe what you would want your legacy to be in
one word, what would.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
That be my legacy? Have a teacher in general.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
You can choose an avenue you want the teacher that.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I Mean we asked the tough questions here, but.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
It's not a tough question. It's the question is great.
It's just the Yeah, it's profound because if you think
of all the different avenues, then it's like in one word,
since we're talking about education, I think my legacy, what
makes me, what kept me going as an educator is
the fact that I know that I influenced hundreds and
(27:50):
hundreds of students mm that probably I don't even remember.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
And what made me.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Continue as and educators that I know that at one
point in their developmental life I influenced their vision of
the world by showing the world to them from an
architectural standpoint of view. And so when you see these
(28:21):
students that come in raw, their raw, knowing nothing about
the built world, and then leaving and looking at the
world with different eyes. What you were saying before, like
looking at things with different eyes is what I want
to be remembered as from all of those students that
(28:41):
I think at one point in their lives, as they
grow and become adults and they get their own family,
they go back and say, professor to you know, I
remember that one particular time that he made me see
that one aspect of architecture that I didn't even know
it existed. So that that's probably what makes me happy
to that.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
That's beautiful influence. And I'm sure you have and I'm
sure they do, so.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
The word would be influence.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
I was there. Yeah, yeah, So that's probably the reason why.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
And I think when you become a teacher, you you
have to feel that that way. It's like you're like
a missionary, and so you're you're helping people become professionals,
especially in this profession where you're learning something physical. You're
not leaving Berkeley College in Tier design department with a
(29:35):
lot of theory. No. No, you're leaving Berkeley College in
tior design department with a lot of hands on practice
and real experience, so that you can go out there
into the world and choose whatever ramification you want into
the architectural construction industry and and go do your thing.
(29:58):
You can work in an architectural off interior design office.
You can work in products architectural product sales, which they
make so much money you know, you don't even know it.
Or in the manufacturing industry right furniture design and manufacturing,
lighting design and manufacturing, you name it. Worst scenario. If
(30:20):
you know you're really stuck and you can get a job,
you go into the home depots or lows and you
get a job in the aspects of design because they
have kitchen design, they have bad design, that have construction materials,
products sales, because the moment you understand architecture and the
materials and products that come with it, you're not just
(30:41):
a salesperson that is trying. They're hard, trying too hard.
I don't like salespeople too much. They try too hard
to sell you something. What I'm talking about is my
students will be able to talk about the materials and
the products in a different way, in a professional way,
which will catch the buyer's attention. So so that's really
(31:03):
what we try to do.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So he's sending them out prepared, right they are.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
They are work.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Ready when they leave him, they're ready, they.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Are work ready.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
If you want to learn more about the interior Design
program at Berkeley College, visit w w W dot Berkeley
College dot E d U, or you can go to
the social media pages at Berkeley College b.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
E r K, E L E Y. Thank y'all for
visiting us.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
This has been great for inviting me, and I look
for I look forward to this, this tour that we're
going to go on the.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Next time, next time over a gless of wine.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, I want the whole experience, correct experience. Yeah yeah,
all right, you know what, let's just meet in Rome somewhere.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Let's go to put it on your card, penny, Okay, great,
I heart.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Check it in.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Well.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Thank you guys for watching and listening to teach me
something presented by Berkeley College. See you next time.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
All right, bye guys, bye.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Bye, hey, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Tune in next week for all new episode of teach
me Something brought to you by Berkeley College
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