About

Designer, researcher, and artist working at the intersection of interior design and mental health.

Michelina Green working on a design project

Background

I'm an interior designer whose practice is rooted in a single question: how do the spaces we inhabit shape the way we feel? Having lived with mental illness for most of my life, I've experienced firsthand how a room can quiet the mind or quietly intensify what's already there. That experience drives everything I design.

My work sits at the intersection of interior design, biophilic principles, and mental-health research. I'm especially drawn to healthcare and healing environments — the kinds of spaces that are often built for efficiency and end up feeling clinical to the people who need them most. My senior thesis redesigned an adolescent inpatient psychiatric ward; my studio projects have pulled the same threads through co-working spaces for parents, transitional housing, airport sacred spaces, and small live-work pods.

Outside of design studio I draw, paint, embroider, and occasionally make short films — and I think of those practices as part of the same conversation. The way a piece of charcoal or a watercolor wash forces you to slow down is the same attention I want a well-designed room to ask for.

Education

Virginia Commonwealth University — BFA, Interior Design (expected 2025). Coursework included Senior Thesis Studio, Junior and Sophomore Interior Design Studios, Advanced Interior Graphics I & II, Surface Research, Drawing Studio, and Time Studio through the Art Foundation Program.

VCUarts in Italy, Sicily — Three-week summer studio (2024) focused on observational rendering, ancient wood joinery, mosaic-making, and material studies.

Skills

  • Design & rendering: Revit, Enscape
  • Manual rendering: graphite, ink, marker, colored pencil, charcoal, watercolor
  • Mixed media: embroidery, collage, sculpture, short-form video
  • Research: biophilic design, evidence-based design for mental health, healthcare interiors