Argumentative research paper

Sustainability in Green Interior Design

 

            As urban people, we are surrounded by many different kinds of interior design for example, bedrooms in our house, fancy restaurants in downtown, or efficient and comfortable offices in workplaces. Everything indoor around us stands for a design decision. “Given that we spend upwards of 90 percent of our time indoors, these decisions matter and can have profound effects on our health and the environment” (Easton, 2014). Nowadays, there is a new trend of making our home “going green,” which is embodied in green interior design. When consumers design their home, they are more likely to consider designing a highly functioning and aesthetically pleasing environment, which is eco-friendly design (Dennis, 2010). Therefore, I did research on how we can make our future home green by choosing environment-friendly decorating material and improving indoor air quality. As a result of investigation, I think both residents and interior designers should take the point of “sustainability” as the first consideration when they make a decision about the interior design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

           One of the most important aspects of sustainability is health. According to Easton (2014), health referred to the health of materials, health of indoor environment, and health of residents. And the indoor air quality stands out among those three types of health because it obviously has a profound influence on residents and related to the residents’ health directly. As a matter of fact, most conventional furniture may flood with toxic chemicals and organic pollutions, which is formed during manufacturing, packaging, transporting, and painting (Dennis,2014). Many of my friends and relatives would pay close attention to the formaldehyde content in the oil paint and furniture. And they prefer to pick up the healthy and eco-friendly products. Randy Fiser, the executive vice president and CEO of American Society of Industrial Designers（ASID）, said that it demonstrated the value of an interior designer if he or she understood the health implications of those harmful substance and how to source toxin-free products (Easton, 2014). As a leader, he must be very familiar with the need of a market and the importance of health. So we could see that health is the key consideration for both residents and designers.

 

               Besides, sustainable interior design is design that goes beyond energy-efficient, water-saving, and natural resources-savings. Xu (2012), an expert in sustainable design, mentioned that harmonious coexistence is the guiding ideology to achieve unity of human and nature. By listening to an expert, we should practice designing buildings so that they bring harm to natural systems as little as possible. If we want to protect our globe, making design sustainable is an indispensable choice. In Easton’s article, she cites ASID’s “Facts & Figures report” which says “on average, interior designers specify products in nearly 9 out of 10 projects in both residential and commercial projects” (Easton, 2014, n.p.) We can see from the data that interior designers do have great impact on built environment. So whether the design can achieve unity of human and nature depends on designers, in most cases. Randy Fiser, executive vice president and CEO of ASID, gave an example with some specific numerical data. In America, if the households could change the water-efficient utilities, such as water faucet, instead of the inefficient ones, then the whole country could save 60 billion gallons of water. From the commercial perspective, in a small office, with no more than 10 employees, if they change a toilet, such kind of small change could save even 69,000 gallons of water per year, which equals to $ 420.He said that, in America, if the households could change the water-efficient utilities, such as water faucet, instead of the inefficient ones, then the whole country could save 60 billion gallons of water. From the commercial perspective, in a small office, with no more than 10 employees, if they change a toilet, such kind of small change could save even 69,000 gallons of water per year, which equals to $420 (Easton, 2014). Based on the example, I can tell that installing a water-efficient faucet is just one simple decision that designer made, but such simple decision could be amplified with the cumulated number of buildings. So it is essential for interior design professionals to understand the concept of sustainability and take an action to achieve it in order to achieve energy-efficient, water-saving, and natural resources-savings.

 

             Another important aspect of sustainability is the impact on cost of decoration. In addition to that we meet the aesthetically pleasing, healthy and environmental friendly needs, we also need to consider the cost for achieving sustainable interior design and the household’s budget. A member in International Interior Designers Association (IIDA), Barbara L. Young, said that there is a “triple bottom line ” in the field of interior design, for designers, they should consider impact on cost of decoration, people who use it, and environment. Apparently, each family has their unique tolerant budget and willingness on how much they want to spend on interior design. So maximizing the utility of building materials and accessories to enrich interior design is one of the efficient economical methods. Each decision that the designer and homeowner made involves costs. For example, the energy consumption of lighting system may vary based on different bulbs we choose and installing the water-conserving facilities could help save water and water rate. We should also take the reality into consideration when we make the decisions.' What if the household wants to be surrounded by marine animals, will he install a super huge fish tank in the apartment? What if the household wants to have complete intelligent furniture, will he hire workers to custom a house like Bill Gates' mansion "Future Home" or do it by himself? Each decision we made on interior design involved money, which cannot be disregarded.

 

             All in all, there is no standard first consideration when making the design decisions, but based on  what I learned from my previous research, I would argue that taking the point of “sustainability” as the first consideration would be the best choice for designers and homeowners. If we do not have a healthy life, everything else is worthless. And, at stake are not only the health of humans but that of the earth. Meanwhile, to be realistic, money is the foundation of making dreams come true, which is also the foundation of enriching sustainable interior design. So it is better to be sustainable when we have interior design to have a healthy life, healthy environment and be economic.