Talking to Ourselves

The mission of the Journal of Interior Design is to publish informative research specific to interior design. The early pioneers of interior design research (from William Morris to Mies van der Rohe, William H Whyte to Michael Brill) firmly believed that not only could an interior environment improve the quality of life for its occupants, but in the long term the designed environment could solve major health-, education-, and work-related problems. It has been exciting and rewarding to be a part of a profession based on such humanistic, even perhaps exceedingly lofty, ideals. However, it has also been frustrating, when on occasion, it is necessary to explain how design research can have psychological, sociological, cultural, and economic, as well as physical implications for everyone in all situations. Such linkages often surprise the client, the interested observer, and the student designer alike. I was amused the first time a hotel owner reflected on how much design he had learned as I explained the importance of lobby carpet pattern choices influenced by the glass elevator and the visual perceptions of the rider on the first floor compared to the rider on the 20th floor. Later, working with new information technology firms in Austin during the boom of the 1980s, as the issue of carpel tunnel syndrome emerged I sought advice and guidance from the medical field so that my design recommendations would not cause injury to those working in new ways. Later, as a member of an interior design faculty trying to help students understand that design was not just about their own definition of beauty, introducing the research on environmental preference and restorative environments, I opened their eyes and minds to the potential of design for ameliorating stress.