Years of working with clients to create living and working environments that enhance their lives have given me a deep appreciation for the importance of interior design in everyone's life. Interior design is a profession that unites art with business, right brain activity with left brain activity, and all done simultaneously. Design grounded in research provides informed design decisions. My experiences as a full-time interior designer, as a leader in the local ASID, as a graduate student, and as an interior design educator have allowed me to experience and to view this profession from many different angles.
The significance of our profession and demand for our services will continue to grow as people look for environments that allow them to work effectively, to gracefully age in place, that successfully integrate multi-generational living, that are sensitive to the use of the earth’s resources, and that support the mental and physical health of those who live and work there. As understanding of the holistic interdependence among building and design systems grows, it is more important than ever that interior designers are part of any team involved with the programming, design, specifications, execution, and post-occupancy evaluation of a project. With this demand for services also comes the demand for research to provide the evidence for new design directions, which in turn creates the demand for well-educated and trained interior design graduates.
In practice, interior design is only as good as the contextual research for the project. The foundational work done in the information gathering phase is crucial to the appropriateness of the design solutions. The movement to evidence-based design to better understand the implications and ramifications of design and to justify the decisions and dollars spent on projects demand more action research. As described by Zeisel (2006), “Action research projects aim to improve future actions by understanding earlier, similar changes in such things as physical environments, managements rules, policies, and the way decisions are made” (p.97). The demand by the client for research-based information provides opportunities for all areas of the design profession to grow. I believe that the gap often discussed between research and practice will narrow considerably.
My years of experience translates to the classroom as I help students discover how to think outside the box to create design solutions and how to best address clients' needs, wants, and preferences. From the basic building blocks of the principles and elements of design, to design concepts, to design studio, to calculations and pricing, and finally to the intricacies of working with clients and creating business documents, I enjoy creating activities that allow students to learn by linking activities to real world situations. My ideal for a student who passes my classes is that they have not only learned the basic objectives, but that they also have learned to listen, to see, to communicate – verbally and visually, and to think a little differently. Learning to think creatively and critically is able to be developed step by step through the student’s sequenced courses and is enhanced by their own self-awareness.
Self-knowledge for the student about why and how they learn empowers them to be able to tap into their inner resources and to be more in charge of their education. I utilize a combination of the Clifton StrengthFinder 2.0 (Rath, 2007) and the Gregorc Style Learning Delineator (Gregorc, 2003) for their self-discovery in the classroom. This helps me understand what they need from me in the classroom, and it helps the student to understand themselves and their colleagues better, allowing them to focus on their design work. This has an added benefit of aiding in team and collaborative exercises.
Even with the many different learning styles, I find that students learn best when they are engaged actively with the material. By weaving real world experiences into the classroom, whether it is measuring an existing structure, using a local case study, or interviewing their ‘personal’ client whose needs and wants will dictate their design, students are fully engaged in these types of hands-on projects. The true reward of teaching is seeing their skill sets continue to build and develop through graduation and into their professional life. Each student comes to class with their own issues and their own ways of understanding information. I never forget that they are in college to learn and it is my job to facilitate their learning and find ways to help them grasp and understand the concepts. My hope is to instill within them a sense of self and design that will follow them through their career and their life.
References
Gregorc, A. (2003). Gregoric Style Delineator. Columbia, CT: AFG.
Rath, T. (2007). Clifton Strengths Finder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press.
Zeisel, J. (2006). Inquiry by Design: Environment/Behavior/Neuroscience in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape, and Planning. New York: W.W. Norton and Co, Inc.