Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Interior Designers Can Save Lives?


While conducting some research last year on what; I can’t remember I found a brilliant list of how interior designers save lives. Don’t you love the serendipities of life? I find they happen a lot when surfing the web. It can be a challenge to resist the urge to get lost. I do try to discipline myself to stay on target. However there are just some days when I get lost in web space discovering so many things I can hardly keep up. Just love it.

Interior designers can save lives?

The concise comprehensive list of points on how interior designers can save lives complied by Interior Design Legislative Coalition of Pennsylvania (IDICPA) reminds us there are a number of ways interior designers can:



     · Save lives

     · Reduce consumer cost

     · Promote energy efficiency

     · Pursue environmental responsibility

     · Increase productivity and well being


Most people have a completely different view of interior design. Many see interior design as a luxury of no particular importance. Lists like this one produced by the IDICPA highlight this is not so. For example the first one mentioned is fire prevention.


Fire Prevention

If fires are not caught immediately once they start in interior spaces they can spread rapidly. It is estimated within the first 45 seconds deadly noxious gasses are produced. Designers are trained to use products or have products treated to comply with fire codes. Last year I had some Indian saris’ treated with a fire-retardant by Peter Lynn of Qualifire in Port Adelaide before we could use them in an art café space. This is only of the many ways interior designers save lives. 

If you want to view the complete list the website is www.idicpa.org

Sometimes as designers it can be of value to revisit and consider some of things mentioned on the list. It can also be refreshing to think about the importance of our work. I am so happy to be involved in such a complex and ever changing field of endeavour. There is no time for boredom. The great English critic, essayist, and reformer John Ruskin said:

 
'The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.'

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