Category: Safety and Welfare
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ANOTHER LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS…or is it?
Okay off of my legislation/regulation high horse for a moment….”whoaaa Nellie…somebody get me a step stool…” Even PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER missed this trend when it first became public over a year ago. Seems some entrepreneurial real estate developers are trying to weasel in our Health Safety and Welfare trifecta by creating residential real estate that literally improves your HEALTH and subsequently improving one’s WELFARE. If we assume the residences to be SAFE you have to admit that they have a runner on all three of our bases….and these are real estate people…..people. So maybe I am jealous I did not think of this first…my hats off to the folks at Delos. First published in the Daily Beast here; http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/13/wellness-real-estate-for-the-green-1-percent.html And then more widely publicized this past weekend in the New York Times here; http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/realestate/health-centric-homes-for-a-price.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1372771662-R3dJ91MTLtIa9m7apiBTLg Why don’t we own this? This is all about interior space right? Yes there is a bit of hucksterism and elitist sales pitching going on here, fortunately aimed at the uber-rich, but you have to admire the concept. Who would not want to live in a house that does not merely keep them healthy it actually improves their health. Granted most of the elements of Delos’ “health-centric” residences have been around for a couple of years…if not more. Anti-microbial self-cleaning ceramics, HEPA/Ultra-Violet filtration systems, Bio-Rhythmic LED lighting, and my favorite walls and windows -that attenuate outside sounds (duh!), are all tools that have been available to us (thanks mostly to USGBC). However, Mr. Scialla and his partners were the first to package it and they have even trademarked the concept. Not sure how that works but I am sure we’ll find out when another less ambitious developer or one of our interior design brethren decides to mimic the idea. I do think ID educators and researchers have an opportunity here to fully investigate this new marketing approach to validate its effectiveness….it seems to ring true but what is the evidence and how can we help make the concept more affordable. I won’t get into the whole socio-economic bias here but let’s face it…eating healthy is more expensive than eating junk food or non- “organic” vegetables…so maybe this living healthy is a similar paradigm….another research topic no doubt. This reminds me of the ” trend du’ 2006 “aging in place” in which the National Association of Home builders capitalized on the benefits of our tried and true “Universal Design” and packaged that knowledge and skill sets in a credential known as Certified Aging In Place Specialist or CAPS http://www.nahb.org/category.aspx?sectionID=686 . Again we, as a professional domain should own this concept…nay many ASID’ers also claim the CAPS credential due to its marketing potential- kudos to the NAHB So yes it is easy for me to pontificate to the drivers of this profession from the proverbial back seat but I have to say for creative problem solvers we sure miss some golden opportunities to advance the professional domain…and these opportunities don’t involve a bunch of political and legal drama. It simply is what we do. Fail to define what we do and others will do it for us. Carry on.
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Knick Knack THIS!
“But that know-how doesn’t come cheap. Interior designers charge upwards of $200 per hour—knick-knacks not included” PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER is glad that he is not prone to violence. However spontaneous combustion does run in his family.
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…and now for some good PR.
Here is a great article about a Florida State Interior Design graduate- Kudos to Jill Pable and the FSU program!
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NOW THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO SEE MORE OF
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/topofthetimes/features/la-hm-cobb-20100522,0,1292447.story This story warms PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER’S heart…..this is an example of the benefit that competent, compassionate and trained interior designers can provide to society. THIS IS THE WELFARE ASPECT OF “TO PROTECT THE HEALTH SAFETY AND WELFARE” of the public that is so hard to define yet is so critical to distinguishing our professional domain from those […]
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Is It A New Pair-A-Dime Or…….
The pretty picture of some unlivable or unworkable interior tableau is becoming our professional albatross. Many of our so-called Interior Design trade magazines continue to ahem….dwell on the image and not the substance. I have experienced many an interior space that photographed well but was unlivable. Why do we continue to celebrate this?
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MYOPIC VITRIOLE OR VISIONARY EMPOWERMENT
I have been thinking about this issue way more than most sane people……..Unfortunately defining the professional domain of Interior Design is a mind numbingly complex, confusing, and completely debatable issue. I certainly understand why many of my peers avoid it like the plague. In our case (the United States) we have convinced ourselves that it […]
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It’s Getting Nasty in the Interior Design Sandbox
Okay the IDPC is on a roll…the rhetoric is amazing. Here are the 10 ways decisions by designers can impact the health safety and welfare of the public as written by the IDLPCA (Pennsylvania Pro-Legislation Group) http://www.idlcpa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=28 While I do not think the examples are compelling enough to deem government regulation necessary, the point is that […]
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