“So, you are an interior designer! Oh, this must be fun...”
Well, yes, it is! Designing interiors for people and making their life more enjoyable is a lot of fun!Very often the perception of our profession stops at this remark “it must be fun”, but designing an interior implies a lot of responsibilities such as the most obvious ones: to comply with all the building and regulation. More than that, it is our duty to design not only a beautiful, sophisticated and ergonomic space, but we have to make sure that the end result is going to be a healthy place for our clients to live in and won't have any negative impact on our environment.
When researching and reading all the labels carefully, it is amazing to see how many toxic molecules are still included in many furnitures, finishes, glues...For example, the glues and bonding materials used in wood product can contain molecules such as urea-formaldehyde, which is a recognized carcinogen. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) contained in paints are slowly released in the air for more than two years...As designers we have to check whatever is going to enter our client's house to make sure that when we have left, the house will be a safe place to live in.Another responsibility is to make sure that we only use materials that come from a renewable source, as we don't want to participate to the depletion of precious natural resources.Local sourcing is also important as it helps us to reduce our carbon footprint with minimizing the transport of materials.And of course, we shall make sure that the products we use are not going to finish in a landfill or pollute when discarded. For example the use of vinyls such as vinyl floorings which are a petroleum based products that won't degrade and are pilling up in landfills should be avoided. In most of the cases, it is possible to use an alternative flooring which won't have a negative impact on our planet.
It is now our responsibility as interior designer not only to create a fantastic and personalized scheme for your client, but also to check all the components and make sure they are healthy and environmentally friendly. This can be done by all of us, by educating ourself and become environmentally friendly, so that we will be used to check the components of products and know how to read the labels. We shall always research new environmentally friendly products, and source as locally as possible.
To start with we can include the following questions when designing: where does it come from? And where does it go? In this way we will integrate the concept of environmentally friendly into Interior Design.
Emmanuelle Lemoine
Wow, it sounds like a minefield: who knew that every day materials harboured all those health and environmental risks! Perhaps we should all be more responsible when sourcing things for our homes and workplaces.
ReplyDeleteLove your ethos - it nice to have nice things and live in a beautiful environment but not at any cost. I love re-using and recycling. In fact I would go so far as to say I get a real buzz from it.
ReplyDeleteSteph
Like every other profession out there, I guess there's a lot more to interior design than meets the eye. I've certainly learned a few things by reading this post. Thanks for entering the blog carnival, it's much appreciated.
ReplyDelete