My Design Philosophy

What interior architecture means to me.

I don't have some pivotal moment in my life where everything just clicked and I knew what I wanted to do. There is no touching story that brought me to where I am today. My life has been more of piecing together things that I have experienced into a puzzle. Except I don't have all the pieces. Nor do I know what the final product is. I know only the meaning it should reflect, and that I am continually discovering more pieces of the whole. Below I will briefly cover a few parts that I have made sense of. .

"...Given that we spend more than 90% of our life indoors, it is important to understand and act accordingly. Design of buildings...benefit from views and interaction of occupants with their natural environment." (Al horr et al., 2016)

Since being outside has such a positive impact on both physical and mental health, then why separate the two so much? I want my designs to be cohesive with nature to promote the well-being of whomever enters the space. How a space affects an individual's feelings and behaviors is absolutely compelling, and since I am in control of this with my designs, I want to do the best job I can to improve others' lives.

In conjunction with blending the line between indoors and outdoors, I also care about preserving the environment. As a designer, I have made it a goal to make all of my projects in my career have sustainable aspects. As stated above, nature is vital to our well-being, so I want to protect the Earth by making sure what I create is modeled after the "passive house" idea ("..a voluntary standard for constructing energy efficient buildings, with a minimal ecological footprint." [Massart, 2017]).

I have always been a creative person. I am the "learn by seeing and doing" type and known as the artistic one of the group. Part of this passion comes from the satisfaction of creating something that hadn't existed before. The capability of taking something through a process and forming it into reality is its own type of magic.  It's similar to the feeling you get after you clean your house, except multiply that feeling and extend the benefiting audience to more than just yourself. To be able to bring a concept to life by taking it through the design process is one of my primary motivators as an interior architect. 

As a designer, I always put everything I have into what I do, despite knowing that I'll never have all the pieces or fit them together as planned. This motivation comes from my passion for the Earth and how the preservation of it will benefit the end-users of my designs. Knowing that I am able to create a piece of reality through my own (and others') ideas creates the drive in me to pursue my passion. 

Sources:  Al Horr, Arif, Katafygiotou, Mazroei, Kaushik, & Elsarrag. (2016). Impact of indoor environmental quality on occupant well-being and comfort: A review of the literature. International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, 5(1), 1-11. Massart, M. (2017, August 01). The future of home construction: Passive House. Retrieved from http://www.ourpositiveplanet.com/the-future-of-home-construction-passive-house/