Some Thoughts on the IFI DFIE Declaration

by Brad Powell

Interior design is the study and practice of applying knowledge of human-environment interactions to plan interior environments suitable for their intended use.

Interior design professionals are experts in the interior built environment. Their expertise is based on an understanding of human and environmental characteristics and the related ecologies. Their unique competence is the ability to translate this understanding into spaces that are appropriate for their intended use.

3.14.11 | As reported in last week’s issue (officeinsight 3.7.11, An Historic Event: IFI Design Frontiers - The Interiors Entity (DFIE) Global Symposium), theInternational Federation of Interior Architects/Designers held a global Symposium on February 17-18, 2011, during which it completed Phase 2 of its IFI Design Frontiers - The Interiors Entity. The final step was the drafting, adopting and publishing of the IFI DFIE INTERIORS Declaration. (See next page for the complete Declaration. ) This Declaration distilled a year’s effort in gathering, from 80 countries, the views of interior architects/designers about the scope and purposes of their field of study and practice. As one might expect, these views are an interesting tapestry of what the profession is and what it aims to be. (As an aside, the Outcomes Declaration Committee did an extraordinary job synthesizing the various viewpoints in a just a few hours.*)

During that same period, I have published part of my continuing series whose purpose is to contribute some thoughts on a new definition of “interior design.” (Note: IFI uses the terms interior architecture and interior design interchangeable, reflecting the customs in the countries of its various organizational members. I use the term “interior design,” it being the prevailing term in the United States.)

An obvious question now is, “To what extent do my developing views on the definition of “interior design” accord with those expressed in the Declaration? My definition, as last stated (See officeinsight 2.7.11, A Random Walk: Interior Design: Toward A New Definition - Part 6 – Why Design) is as follows:

Interior design is the study and practice of applying knowledge of human-environment interactions to plan interior environments suitable for their intended use.
–Brad Powell

This definition states two fundamental characteristics of interior design:

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• that it is based on knowledge of human-environment interactions
• that it is purposeful, being guided by the intended use of the space

While my thesis remains to be fully articulated, I should add at this point that “knowledge” for this purpose includes that derived from pure research in many human-related fields, empirical observations of the type used by the Evidenced-Based Design movement (more of a “black-box” level of investigation sometimes referred to as “applied” knowledge), and intuitive knowledge derived from general personal experience and observation of the individual designer. Moreover, my view is that the most important elements in any environment for humans are other humans. Thus, the human-environment interaction aspect includes cultural, sociological and other interpersonal interactions, and particularly, the exchange of information resulting from these interactions.

IFI DFIE INTERIORS DECLARATION

It is the nature of Humankind not only to use spaces, but to fill them with beauty and meaning.

Skillfully designed spaces can arouse in us a sense of purpose, or a sense of the profound.

In the spaces that are important to us, we experience not only a sense of place, but a sense of who we are, and of what we can be.

Thoughtfully designed spaces help us learn, reflect, imagine, discover and create.

Great spaces are indispensable for great creative cultures. They encourage connections between people, ideas and entire fields of thought.

As design professionals, our knowledge enables us to form spaces that respond to human needs. These human spaces are the domain of our competence, our passion and our work.

We use space responsibly. We practice our profession with highest regard for engaging the world's economic and natural resources in a sustainable manner. We design for health, safety, well-being and the needs of all.

It is, after all, for Humanity, our ultimate client, that we design.

We shape the spaces that shape the human experience.
This is what we do, what we create, what we give. 
It is how we earn our place at the human table. 
It is why our work is important to our clients, to our societies and to ourselves. 
It is the difference we make and why we choose this noble profession."

VALUE "The profession provides leadership and utilizes an iterative and interactive process that includes discovery, translation and validation, producing measurable outcomes and improvements in interior spaces and in the lives of the people who use them. This process delivers economic, functional, aesthetic and social advantage that helps clients understand the value of their decisions and enables better decisions that are beneficial to users and to society. It is recommended that the profession become a trusted voice and develop multiple research models in the context of physical, emotional and behavioral patterns of users."

RELEVANCE "The profession defines projects at their commencement, and champions human experience at all levels. Interior designers and interior architects synthesize human and environmental ecologies and translate science to beauty addressing all the senses. The practitioner listens, observes, analyzes, improves and creates original ideas, visions and spaces that have measurable value."

RESPONSIBILITY "The responsibility of interior designers and interior architects is to define the practice and the required expertise, educate ourselves and the public, and to position ourselves in the public realm as experts in the built environment.

CULTURE "As a creative enterprise, interior design and interior architecture are a mode of cultural production. They are a place-maker that interprets, translates, and edits cultural capital. In a global world, interior design and interior architecture must play a role in facilitating the retention of cultural diversity."

BUSINESS "The profession of interior design and interior architecture provides value to the stakeholders. It improves well-being as a factor of economic development. It provides strategic thought leadership resulting in multifaceted return on investment. Interior designers and interior architects advocate education for the ongoing benefit and awareness of the profession."

KNOWLEDGE "Theoretical, applied, and innate knowledge are fundamental to the practice of interior design and interior architecture. The confluence of environmental psychology and the science of anthropometrics are critical to the quantitative and qualitative knowledge that form the practice of interior design and interior architecture."

IDENTITY "Interior designers and interior architects determine the relationship of people to spaces based on psychological and physical parameters, to improve the quality of life."

© 2011 International Federation of Interior Archtects/Designers
Reprinted with permission

PRESIDENT SAHSHI CAAN WITH OUTCOME DECLARATION COMMITTEE: ALF LESTER (AUSTRALIA), IRIA DEGEN (SWITZERLAND), JENNIFER BUSCH (USA), MS. CAAN, LESLIE LAM LU (HONG KONG), SYLVIA LEYDECKER (GERMANY), ALAIN DUFOUR (CANADA). NOT PICTUREDP: JOHN FLY (USA), BRAD POWELL (USA). PHOTO BY DENNIS RAINALDI PHOTOGRAPHY

You will note that I avoid the distinction between the aesthetic and the functional because this appears to be an unhelpful, even misleading, distinction for definitional purposes. By this I mean that aesthetics are functional, for example, in the same way that we now understand that emotions inform intelligence and affect performance. Indeed, one might suggest that emotions represent our engagement with the environment and are what give facts and information meaning. Accordingly, the absence of terms such as “beauty,” and similar words does not indicate that they are not important. On the contrary, my use indicates my belief that aesthetics are not the frivolous items of luxury that we often suppose. Interior design is full of examples of great and/or interesting aesthetics and beauty. What is needed is a better understanding of how these aesthetics support (or not) the intended use of the related space.

“Purpose,” under my definition, includes those objectives which could be considered good or bad, rather than being limited to those objectives which a particular culture might deem good, such as sustainability or those providing obvious social-economic benefit.

Thus, a primary difference between my approach and that of IFI is our objectives. I am attempting to explore the fundamental nature of interior design and what it can do, and how it achieves its effects; the IFI Declaration is a more general articulation of how interior designers now view their practice and field of study.

Previously, I have also distinguished my definitional efforts from the desire for a five-second elevator speech, something that interior designers can use to briefly describe their profession. The Declaration effort did come up with something that is closely akin to my definition and that can be useful for some purposes:

Interior design is the field of study and profession that shapes the environments that shape us and our experience.

OR simply

We shape the environments that shape our experience.

This has a certain amount of music and poetry that should resonate with designers and clients alike, intellectually and emotionally. Designers can, of course, pick and choose from the Declaration to formulate their own brief description to suit the context.

The Declaration consists of a preamble and a set of seven basic principle concerns. The preamble, essentially, describes what interior architecture/design does. The second part primarily describes how profession achieves its objectives.

For my own understanding and to relate the provisions of the Declaration to my own thoughts, I have recast the Declaration into a more narrative form:

Interior architecture/design professionals shape the spaces that shape us and the human experience. They protect us through their designs to ensure the health, safety, well-being and the needs of us all. The knowledge and experience of these professionals enable them to form spaces that foster communication, collaboration, creativity, discovery, imagination, learning, and reflection.

Skillfully designed spaces support our emotional needs by inspiring a sense of purpose or a sense of the profound and by informing our intellectual activities.

These spaces also orient the individual psychologically in the world by providing a sense of place, and a sense of who we are and of what we can be. Great spaces go beyond individual experiences, helping to form cultures by providing connections among people and their organizations, ideas and fields of thought.

I have also reduced the thoughts on the seven principle concerns – again, representing the how subject – to a short narrative. The core subjects discussed in DFIE were

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• Value
• Relevance
• Responsibility
• Culture
• Business
• Knowledge
• Identity

My understanding of the essentials of the consensus regarding these subjects is as follows:

Identity, Responsibility: The interior architecture/design field defines and develops the scope and purposes of its practice and the expertise required for this practice, positioning itself in the public realm as an expert in the interior built environment.

Knowledge, Relevance, Culture: Interior professionals use theoretical, applied and intuitive knowledge to understand human and environmental ecologies and translate science into function, addressing all the senses, human needs and emotions. They design spaces taking into account relevant physical, psychological, sociological and cultural parameters. Their designs determine the relationship of people to their organization, each other and their interior spaces, providing an environment for developing and nurturing cultural values.

Value, Business: Through these processes, interior professionals help clients understand the value and consequences of their decisions regarding their real estate and its interior spaces, thereby supporting decision-making this is more beneficial to themselves, users and society.

Clearly, the Declaration provides a helpful explanation of interior architecture/design, a more complete, perhaps even fulsome, description of the field and practice than is necessary for definitional purposes. My adaptation of the Declaraton, distilled to its essence and stripped of its more expository aspects, is the following:

Interior architecture/design professionals are experts in the interior built environment. Their expertise is based on an understanding of human and environmental characteristics and the related ecologies. Their unique competence is the ability to translate this understanding into spaces that are appropriate for their intended use.

This dovetails nicely with my evolving definition, as stated above and, in fact, provides an appropriate elaboration of my definitional core concepts and, is so helpful in its description of interior design professionals, I am adding it to my definitional vocabulary. Needless to say, given my mental set, it is not surprising that I have selected from the over 600 words of the Declaration, the 46 that support my views.* Still, reviewing carefully the Declaration as adopted by IFI, I believe that the material not included in my reduction is, essentially, elaboration, with the exception of the material related to “Identity,” which is beyond the scope of my definitional exercise, dealing as it does with procedural and organizational matters rather than the substance of the field and practice.

The gratifying, yet somewhat unexpected result, is how close my observations are with the views of the collective IFI efforts and the Declaration finally adopted. The full Declaration, of course, remains the official statement of IFI and provides fertile ground for others to plow as they develop their own understanding of interior architecture/design.

Finally, thanks again to Shashi Caan, the IFI and all of the participants in the IFI DFIE Symposium and, in particular, the Outcome Declarations Committee, in each case, for their exceptional work.

*I was also a member of the Symposium’s Outcome Declaration Committee. I was unable to attend the drafting session, however, and, accordingly, my contribution there was negligible.