Sustainable Interior Environments graduate students (from L-R) Michael Wickersheimer, Alina Coca, Shannon Leddy and Christine Kwon chat with keynote speaker Dr. Stephen Kellert at the annual FIT Sustainable Business and Design Conference on March 27, 2012
As designers we are constantly asking questions, both large and small, general and specific. Who are the users of a space? What kind of design will provide them with a functional yet beautiful interior environment? When can those tiles be shipped? How long is it going to take them to get here? Where can I find some inexpensive reclaimed wood for a client asking for sustainable building strategies but doesn’t want to spend a lot of money?
To answer these questions, we perform what we think of as research. We make some phone calls or log onto the Internet to find the information we seek – often with wildly varying degrees of success. To address the bigger questions, we consult programs and meet with clients and users and delve into our own creative pasts to develop design solutions that are uniquely suited to a particular place at a given time. There’s one question, though, that we don’t seem to ask ourselves nearly often enough: Why?
