Ce prix, remis annuellement, récompense une contribution universitaire exceptionnelle à la discipline du design d’intérieur par la publication d’une communication imprimée ou numérique. Cette année, la Fondation de l’American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) vise les communications portant sur l'impact du design sur la santé et le bien-être et qui traitent, notamment, de sujets tels que la recherche pédagogique, les sciences du comportement, les pratiques commerciales, le processus de conception, la théorie. 

Olivier Vallerand a obtenu le prix Joël Polsky grâce à la contribution de son livre, Unplanned Visitors: Queering the Ethics and Aesthetics of Domestic Space, à la discipline du design d’intérieur. 

À propos de la publication et commentaires de membres du jury

"Unplanned Visitors: Queer Subversions of Domestic Space combines a historical approach with a critical understanding of the relation between identity and design. It constructs a genealogy of queer space theoretical discourse to explore a queer ethics of design. With a focus on critiques of the domestic interior, case studies in design and in art are used to present the first comprehensive book-length survey of queer space discourses in design. Reviewers have highlighted the importance of the book.

Brent Carnell, from The Bartlett School of Architecture, has underlined that “Unplanned Visitors revives a movement with rich discussion of theory and spatial analyses of a well-curated group of art exhibitions and performances. Vallerand extends the earlier work of feminist thinkers in seeking to break down the separate-spheres ideology and structural binaries such as inside/outside, public/private, and male/female to recognize a fluidity of space and identity -- both an interesting read and valuable piece of scholarship.”

John Potvin, design historian at Concordia University, has noted that “at the heart of the project is an uncompromising focus on queer space and how historians, theorists, and cultural producers have attempted to define, challenge, or engender some, largely theoretical, form of queer space. […] While other writings on architectural space, queer theory and sexuality more broadly have come before, many of these have been short, incomplete, or plagued by profound limitations. What makes this book unique and worthy of attention is its sustained approach toward queering recent architectural critique.”"

En savoir davantage sur la publication et en savoir davantage sur le prix et l’ASID.