New Interior Designers Continue to Focus on Green Design

Sustainability is an issue of growing importance in the interior design community. Some students in interior design programs are addressing the issue even before graduation.

by Joe Cooper
joe.cooper@interior-design-schools-search.com
Interior Design School Search Columnist

A student in a Florida interior design program has created a sustainable interior design for an underprivileged women’s clinic in Tallahassee. Her green interior design won the young interior designer a contest put on by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

Another Contest; This Time, For Green Design

Bridget Dunn, an interior design student with green eyes for the future, won the Association’s 2006 Student Sustainable Design Competition. Previously a church and now a historic office building, the site served as inspiration for Ms. Dunn’s interior design, created through a CAD model and referencing all sustainable materials.

Ms. Dunn will have her bachelor’s degree in interior design by the end of the summer.

What is Sustainable Interior Design?

Recycled products are great examples of sustainable interior design materials. Recovered wood, recycled paper, and hypoallergenic paints are sustainable materials popular in modern interior design. While the recycling rate of all municipal waste in the US is over 30%, there is still progress to be made.

New interior designers like Ms. Dunn are increasing their focus on sustainable design, joining a trend of eco-friendly interior design that is supported by organizations like the IIDA.

Sustainable Interior Design Education

Many graduate students in interior design programs choose sustainability as a focus for their thesis topics. It is an issue of growing importance in interior design.

These are a few examples of courses teaching green concepts in interior design programs:

• Environmental Interior Design
• Environmental Textiles
• Environmental Materials and Applications

This type of background prepares interior design students well for contemporary career issues such as sustainability in interior design.

Sources

FSU News
Sacramento Bee

About the Author

Joe Cooper writes home services and design articles and edits medical literature. He holds a bachelor’s in American Literature from UCLA.

Posted on May 29, 2007 at 3:10 PM

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