Sustainability VS The Oblivious World

Sustainability is the future of interior design. By specifying sustainable products, designers can create safer, long-lasting, environmentally and economically conscious spaces. Bill McDonough is at the forefront of sustainability. He believes that “Being less bad is still not good.” Designers in all fields need to rethink how we create products and what effect it has on people and our environment.

Integrating nature with spaces creates a more enriching experience, improves productivity, increases attendance, and increase job satisfaction. Being sustainable improves the way people experience spaces. Less than 3% of products are actually tested for harmfulness. Fabrics, plastics, flooring, furniture, and everything else we interact with on a daily basis could be hurting us. A sustainable world would have harsher product testing and less worries about being poisoned by your environment. There are not enough environmental regulations and few companies care about the environment over money. This means products can be hazardous and poor quality but it’s cheap so if you have to buy another one who cares, right? Society need to rethink and eliminate the concept of waste. Everything should be able to enter the biological cycle or technical cycle. Sweden recycles trash for electricity and heating. They do it so effectively they are forced to import trash from Norway. Imagine if all first-world countries adopted this recycling model.

Instead of cradle to grave, it should be cradle to cradle. The principles are simple and effective:

·         Material Health: Value materials as nutrients for safe, continuous cycling

·         Material Reutilization: Maintain continuous flows of biological and technical nutrients

·         Renewable Energy: Power all operations with 100% renewable energy

·         Water Stewardship: Regard water as a precious resource

·         Social Fairness: Celebrate all people and natural systems

Sustainability can be profitable and there should be more awareness to the public. If people knew what their environments are doing to their health they would be outraged. Maybe this would force industries to adopt a sustainable model.

The Portrait of the Misunderstood Interior Designer

            Interior designers are usually seen as women that help people coordinate colors and picks out pillows. This is mainly because the public is not educated in what we really do. We can’t really blame them since things like HGTV, Youtube, and lack of regulations reinforce these stereotypes that you can wake up one morning and be an amazing interior designer. We are portrayed in a way that makes it seem like everything is pretty rugs and Fung Shui.

            Interior designers learn their skills through four years of schooling, two years experience under a licensed interior designer, and must take an exam to become licensed. Through this path, interior designers can create functional and aesthically-pleasing spaces that are created through research, psychology, and safety codes. While doing research on the image of interior design on the image, I discovered that we are portrayed in a way that makes us seem unnecessary. If the public doesn’t understand what we do, how can we expect them to know that they need us? As a community, we need to make a point to educate the public and teach them the difference between decorator and designer.

Interior designers can work on both residential and commercial projects, while interior decorators can only work on residential projects. This is because in your own home you have the right to do whatever you want with it, while businesses must follow codes and ADA. Decorators do not have the knowledge to provide these requirements. Sure, if you want your living room rearranged and paint colors picked out, a decorator can do that. But when it comes to public safety, a designer can prevent falls, loss of life in fire, building collapses, and promote universal design, functionality, and an overall better experience in spaces.

You wouldn’t want your doctor, attorney, or hair stylist to be unlicensed? So why deregulate the profession that affects all of the interior environments you experience? Decorators say designers are a “cartel”, that we are keeping them out of the field because we fear for our jobs, and that we are being unfair for wanting them to go to school, get experience, and take an exam to be licensed. We work very hard to meet these qualifications and learn very valuable knowledge. Design does not just happen. It is a skill that is honed.  

Ethics: Where Professional and Personal Beliefs Collide

            As long as I can remember I have heard you keep your personal and professional lives separate. But when it comes to ethics, that line blurs. Ethics is an individual’s system of moral principles. In the interior design industry, ethics is always on everyone’s mind. Ethics affects everything from what projects you choose to what happens to extra materials at the end of a project and everything in-between.

            To design a space, the designer has to put themselves in the shoes of the user. Sometimes designers cannot ethically do this. Some designers may have issues designing spaces like strip clubs, abortion clinics, particular religious churches, certain type of night clubs, etc. and some won’t have a problem with it. Even if your ethics don’t conflict with these projects, future clients may not want your services because of it. Your projects are a reflection of you.

            Ethics is so much more than just the jobs you choose. Do you give your client the extra materials or sell it? Do you take that moonlighting job even though it’s not allowed your contract? Do you take those incentives from a rep for specing their product? Do you spec that cheaper, unsafe flooring to save money? None of these things are illegal just unethical. If you have to question how something will affect how you sleep at night, you just shouldn’t do it. Always think ethically and responsibly.

Where Has The Professionalism Gone?

                I am a senior interior design student at a design college. My school is pretty lax. I remember when I first started school; everyone got dressed up for presentations, everything was prepared and ready, and it felt like a career environment. But as the time has gone on I’ve noticed the professionalism begin to fade. Students stopped dressing up, people attack others work, they come in with their projects unfinished, and an overall catty behavior.

            I remember during my second quarter, Florida fought and won to keep interior design regulated. IIDA and ASID had a regulation celebration on my campus. There were senators, presidents from IIDA and ASID chapters, professional interior designers and architects, and students from around the area were invited. With all these influential people around most students were dressed up and on their best behavior. But there was one girl who looked like she just walked off the set of a rap video. Although she had no shame, she was representing interior design students everywhere in the most embarrassing way. She fed into the whole if-your-a-women-lacking-skills-be-an-interior-decorator stereotype that I and my fellow students fight against.

            When it comes to behavior, instead of encouraging one another to do their best, they tear each other down.  I used to see my school like a haven for interior design education but it seems along the way we forgot what we are really there for and just focus on what others are doing. Students have lost sight of the fact that we are here to better ourselves not make ourselves look better by bringing others down. 

I, too, have been guilty of not finishing a project on time. We have 11 weeks and life happens. But to show up to finals with absolutely nothing is just disrespectful. It shows how much they really value their education and the time of their instructors and fellow students. In the real world, they would be fired but in the safety of a for-profit school, as long as they have the money they can keep coming back. 

I believe we need a refresher on professionalism in design education. We need to better prepare ourselves for life after graduation. The students that have graduated before me set the ground work for how employers see fresh-out-of-college graduates. Let’s bring professionalism back to our design schools.

Interior Design: More Than Paint Swatches and Fabric Samples

                As an interior design student, I have done my share of educating others on what interior design is and its value. Mainly because it is not truly clear to the public what we do. I hear to word “decorate” far too often. Although it makes me cringe when I hear the “D” bomb get dropped, I can understand the misconception. “The professional Interior Designer is qualified by education, experience, and examination to enhance the function and quality of interior spaces for the purpose of improving quality of life, increasing productivity, and protecting the welfare, health, and safety of the public,” this is the definition used by the National Council of Interior Design Qualification(NCIDQ). Anyone can decorate, design takes dedication.

            “Qualification through education, experience, and examination,” interior design is regulated which means people can’t just wake up one day and open a design studio. You must be licensed to be a practicing Interior Designer. Licensing requires a degree in interior design or architecture, experience under a licensed Interior Designer, and must pass the NCIDQ exam.  Some people are trying to get rid of regulations but Interior Designers everywhere continue to fight for the safety of the public. But how exactly are we protecting the people, you may ask? Interior designers are required to follow building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act standards. What does that even mean? Building codes requires Interior Designers to know things like travel distance to exits, proper materials, how many people can be in a space, appropriate fire-rated walls and doors, and many others. The Americans with Disabilities Act outlines how to create spaces that fit the needs of the people with disabilities that also makes the space easier to use for the general population. We create built environments that are not only aesthetically-pleasing but safe, fit the needs of the people who use the space, supported with research, and enforce psychological benefits. Next time you reset your electrical socket, go to a romantic restaurant, or just feel good in a space, know we did that just for you.