Perception versus Reality

Many people think that Interior Designers just choose paint colors and furniture and that there is no real thought behind our process. They look at shows like Income Property and Color Splash from HGTV and thing that to remodel a room or whole apartment can happen in as short as a half an hour. What most people don’t see are the production companies cutting and editing hours and hours of film to fit the quick parts of the process into the half an hour time slot of their show. Some design projects may take months to plan, some maybe a few weeks but others can take years depending on how large of project. A perfect example of this is ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover, where a well deserving family gets a new home to meet their needs. In as little as an hour a whole house from demolition to finish is shown in the seven days it took to complete. No one sees the months of planning and research that was done to figure out the special needs products needed to build the home or furnish the interior.

In truth, most well and safely designed project take much needed time to be even designed and then additional time to be carried out correctly. In school we are taught the fundamentals of research and human factors and how this can greatly impact the spaces we design. Without this knowledge some can easily design a space that could potentially kill one or more people after it is completed.  

Sustainability

            The “Go Green” approach which is taking over many career fields not just Interior Design is one that is vastly growing into larger approach than one could have imagined it to have become. Interior Designers are taking recycled objects that are used in spaces that no longer have a need for them and turning them into something that can be used in the same space or another. Designers are even finding better ways to use products to save electricity and water by using more natural lighting and better ways to recycle water. They are also inventing unique ways to make furniture and rooms multifunctional and last longer. Interior Design not only deals with objects in a space but also the space itself. Planning or arranging the room sets the space up for the function of the particular area to allow the user to fulfill their full potential when using the space.

Interior Design has been something that has been around for several hundred years.  When building castles and churches, the builders would use some of the skills and knowledge that we know today.  As time has gone on the project of making things cheaper and better for the client or the environment has been building.  Although this process has been developing, not until recently has it been given a more professional title.  “Go Green” or sustainable Interior Design is what designers refer to as the environmental friendly designs.  Interior Designers are taking the design industry as a whole to move towards a better environment by using recyclable products, more sustainable finishes and materials and green design.          

Recently two formal committees have been formed to regulate what can be considered a green design.  USGBC, which is also known as the United States Green Building Council, is an American based group that specializes in knowing all the standards and regulations of sustainable materials, products and building.  Under the USBGC, LEED has been formed to be a rating system.  LEED, as known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a set of ratings that the USGBC uses for their regulation standards. In order to be considered a green design the project must be under some level of certification through this rating system.

Sustainable and green designs are the new wave of the future of interior design.  This is starting to become a part of the industry where it is its own style just like modern, traditional or periodic.  This specialization has many companies becoming more aware of these new ways to save the planet and more clients are demanding for it.  For some projects, but not all, it can even be cheaper and longer lasting then a high maintained design project.  Today people want whatever they can that will last them for as long as possible.  The longer that lasts the less amount of times they will have to replace it, the less money they are spending.

Understanding the Impact of Design

After finally finishing much research about these medical topics, I really have learned how interior design can benefit the medical field.

Autism, the sensory defensiveness to lighting, sounds and smells, can have a major impact on the way a space is designed. A child who has autism will have difficult time focusing on task in a space that has too much going on. Strips on a wall will have a negative impact on a child with autism like nails on a chalkboard. They depend on their visual sense to tell their brain what is happening. Their brains cause an 85% more intensified sensation to colors. Limiting the use of primary colors may also have negative impact. This may give a child with autism a more difficult time distinguishing the difference between two similar colored directional signs, like an exit and restroom sign. So, simplicity is the key. Keeping things different colors and give a child with autism a visually clear reason why they are in that space is the answer to making them more productive and focused on what they need to do. Compartmentalization is also another way to help a child with autism. Since most chemical exposure is harmful to using materials that natural or organic is a positive impact for the child. Recyclable products with low toxins are another way to cut out chemical exposure in a space. With sustainability becoming more of a way of life than a hobby, it is easier and easier to find these products. Lighting impacts an autistic child from the glare, the noise control and flicker t may make. Making ceilings higher to draw out this effect and diffuses the lighting. In the learning areas for an autistic child is the most important place for them. This is where skills are obtained and important functions occur, if there are too many colors and multiple things going on, an autistic child will not be able to distinguish what they have to do. Interior designers express how they see the world.

For the mentally ill, interior design can be sometimes the only factor they have in not becoming violent.  Some people who can adequately live on their own and socialize among others may live in a communal house with several other people who have similar or the same mentally illnesses as themselves. For these types of people, design must be done correctly for health and safety purposes. The mentally ill have many requirements in order to function fully in a normal living situation. Depending on their illnesses and the extent of it they may need several different factors in how they go about living on a daily basis. Some require no overcrowding because it may hinder their privacy needs. A space of their own on their own control may be required. They may need no overconcentration so that they can go off by themselves. There must be a clear path of retreat in the option of them feeling threatened, they must be able to easily leave the situation. This can be done with clear visual views of other spaces and using sharply contrasting colors to distinguish that this and that space are totally different from one another. Multiple areas of comfortability are necessary so that they may form beneficial relationships and break down barriers that they may already have. Creating a non-authoritative democratic environment is the most essential part of a designer’s job. In other words, creating a space that is stress-free and homelike with color, lighting and landscape. Everyone must be equal and no one should feel like another is valued higher. This can be accomplished through adequate storage and display to establish and maintain self-esteem.

For incarnated criminals, there is even a new design philosophy and a way to go about creating a good working environment. With prisons, compared to the autistic children and the mentally ill, it is designed on a much larger scale with more factors to consider. A prison not only has its inmates to design for but also the guards that work there daily and visitors of the inmates. When a local designer asked some inmates what they would want their dream prison to look like, one would think, paper doors, multiple escape ladders. But to most people’s surprise they primarily asked for a larger view of the outdoors. For some prisons an hour a day is all they get to be outside of the prison. While much of society would probably agree with this why are they not treated like every other citizen?  Yes, they may have committed some very bad crimes, but they are serving their time. While some inmates may only have a short period of time behind bars, others may be in for long periods or even life. Giving them a little better design couldn’t hurt to make their days a tiny bit better. While all this may not be realistic or may even just need to be researched a little more, having glass walls to allow more natural light and views to come in would help in just a tiny bit. Using more bright colors instead of dreadful ones can help too. This may help slightly with rehabilitation of those who will be back on outside after their time is served and not make them so likely to repeat crimes.

http://www.informedesign.org/_news/apr_v06r-pr.pdf

Info on neurological disorder and design

http://www.housingeducators.org/Journals/H&S_Vol_22_No_3_Design_Needs_and_Criteria_for_Chronically_Mentally_Ill_Persons.pdf

Info on mentally ill

http://www.newstatesman.com/art/2007/02/prison-inmates-alsop-design

http://www.informedesign.org/_news/apr_v04r-p.pdf

Info on prisons

Interior Design: An Identity Outside Architecture & Decorating

Most architects will say that “interior design is inferior to architecture”. With AIA, American Institute of Architects and NCARB, National Council of Architectural Registration Board lobbying against interior design to be deregulated of licensing and titling for future professional, it is pretty obvious how architects perceive interior design. Decorators like the ones seen on HGTV make interior design look like an entire could be completed in hour, when it takes months sometimes years to actually just put it all together. Decorators consider themselves to be Interior Designers, although through the NCIDQ, legally they are not.  ASID, American Society of Interior Design, FIDER, Foundation for Interior Design of Education and Research, and the NCIDQ, National Council of Interior Design Qualifications, all collaboratively oversee the development and maintence of these criteria for education and practice.
Architecture, Interior Design, and Decorating (in a very specific order) all have three completely separate definitions.  According to dictionary.com architecture means the profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect, interior design means the design and coordination of the decorative elements of the interior of a house, apartment, office, or other structural space, including color schemes, fittings, furnishings, and sometimes architectural features and decorating means to plan and execute the furnishings and ornamentation of the interior. According to Jessica Napoli, home of this blog, these definitions need a little tweaking. For starters, architecture is the beginning stages of building. They are the skeletal structure of a building. The pieces that make the card house stand up. They deal with anything that is structural in a building through supports. Decorating is simply that. It is taking a space that is pre-determined and changing fabrics, paint and furniture. Interior Design is a slight combination of the two with advancement in the design element. Like I’ve mentioned in my previous blog it’s something more than most people think. Interior Design is taking the health and safety of public and design a space(s) that are both true to form and function of its users.

Architecture has been said to be superior to Interior Design, and this a constant struggle that the field as whole is trying to get out from underneath. Although there are pre-dominantly more men in architecture and more women in interior design, as the new generation is coming into its own, we are seeing a mixture of the two genders even spread throughout both professions. It’s not that women are “just as good as” men. But instead we are equals with women pulling ahead of men in certain areas and vice versa.
Decorating is something that an uneducated designer can do. They have no formal education or experience of federal code standards or human factors of space. They have no idea how lighting can affect a space based on its exterior environment or how dimensional finishes will fit or look on a floor plan. Most decorators can go on a trip to Home Depot and Rooms To Go on a weekend adventure and complete their idea of an Interior Design project without even thinking about the idea of demolition and renovation.
Interior Design as a profession has started to spread its roots of history and advocacy of the profession more and more and will only continue to do so in the future.
“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.” - Charles Eames

The Value of Interior Design & Its Connectivity to Me

Interior Design is something more to me than just selecting furniture and paint colors. it’s choosing where walls will be placed, ADA specifying in any public area, selecting correct flooring for the function of each area of space within a building, making sure that the safety of every person that walks in to a space is in careful consideration, making sure that the function of each area is clear and easily accessible and that every space has well circulation throughout. When people who have no idea what Interior Design is, this is what I tell them. it makes me mad to think that the a-typical housewife wants to call herself an Interior Designer instead of what she actually is which is a DECORATOR by trying to take my title that one day soon will have. She has no idea what code is, or how to spec carpets, acoustics, and textiles and so on. Not to mention she has not taken four years of education, including an internship as well as having two years of field experience before she can even take the exam. I think that interior design is a very important factor in how a space will function overall. Choosing the right colors and furniture only assist in this process. Giving each space a specific function and making it clear through furniture selection, colors, door selection, and window treatment and so make it easy for the user to identify what they are there to do. Interior design is not just about color selection it also has to do with moving anything inside a building that is not structural. It’s about allowing the user to do what they came there to do without having the distraction of the space they are in.

All my life I had grown up saying that I was going to become a lawyer, suddenly thinking of changing my life career plan was a little freighting for me. My career adviser suggested taking some art classes on campus and seeing whether I enjoyed them or not. I took a drawing and oil painting class and really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until I took an art history class that I really fell in love with interior design. Looking at all these historical and architectural buildings and seeing how even back in the 1200’s, 400’s B.C., 1600’s and so on, they were thinking of functionality of the spaces they were building. The ancient Romans built in a way so that they could keep expanding onto their existing buildings for whatever reason they needed the extra space for. I then looked into an architecture degree, upon doing this I came across Interior Design and loved the potential I could have in shaping a space to multiple different functions based on materials. Being in the program at the Art Institute for the last fifteen months has only reassured me that I am right where I am supposed to be.

Although I think highly of Interior Designers, as seeing that I am soon to be one, the profession is not valued as highly as I wish it was. Some, not all, architects don’t really see the difference in what we do. But if you have ever seen an interior of an architect versus an interior designer there is a complete difference. Interior Designers know how take a space and give it maximum functionality. Interior Design is not that valued in the state of Florida by people who are outside the professional. Through recent deregulation issues, it almost gave designers currently in the field a hard time in sealing their own designs in which they are highly capable of doing according to the NCIDQ. Fortunately some highly educated individuals saw the evil in the people trying to push this deregulation, and stopped it from happening. Thank you to those people who helped in doing this, you are much appreciated!

In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

-Steve Jobs