Discover how interior design can contribute to sustainability and environmental protection. Learn how strategies such as using daylight, solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, natural ventilation, and water conservation can make a significant impact.
Key Insights
- Interior designers can utilize daylight as a practical and environmentally friendly strategy, which reduces energy consumption and lowers electric bills. Implementing floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights can maximize natural light in the space.
- Energy savings can be significant with the use of solar or photovoltaic panels, which harness energy from the sun, and energy-efficient appliances which use a fraction of the power of traditional appliances. Opting for Energy Star appliances can contribute to a more sustainable project.
- Water conservation and ventilation are key strategies in sustainable interior design. Graywater systems reuse rainwater for landscaping, and low-flow sinks and toilets reduce water usage. Natural ventilation capitalizes on wind and air circulation to cool buildings, relying on natural forces instead of mechanical devices.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
We are almost done. Let's keep the momentum. Now, sustainable interior design also has some environmental strategies.
So, we were just talking about materials. Well, we can utilize the environment to create sustainability as well. So, if we look at sun and energy, for instance, interior designers can use strategies like floor to ceiling windows.
We saw the image with the window in there to bring in natural daylight. We can use skylights, which allows natural daylight to come in through the ceiling. Natural light reduces the amount of energy used in the space.
Think about it for a second. The more natural light you have, the less artificial light you need to use, right? So, if you're providing more daylight, you're actually saving on the electric bill. You're saving on energy usage.
Now, speaking of that energy, we can also use solar or photovoltaic panels, which harnesses energy from the sun. And think of photovoltaic and solar panels as a way of gathering energy and using it to power the building. And the technology that exists now has come such a long way.
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And not only with energy savings and being able to collect energy from the sun and with solar panels or photovoltaic panels, but we also have very efficient appliances, energy efficient appliances. This can be anything from a television to an appliance that you use in a kitchen that literally uses a fraction of the energy that traditional appliances use. So, you can look for Energy Star appliances and you can find appliances that are extremely sustainable in your project that can work with the environment and reduce the electric bill for the client themselves as multiple benefits.
Another strategy for sustainable environmental strategies is utilizing ventilation. Now, natural ventilation refers to a strategy that uses fresh air that comes into the building, it cools down the building, and it removes stale air. So, it has multiple functions.
This strategy relies on natural forces instead of mechanical devices, which means you're not using something like an air conditioning unit to power the air. You're using the wind, the force of the wind, and nature to allow circulation, allow air to come into the building. Number one, it cools down the space.
And number two, if designed properly, it can literally pull and release stale air out of the home as well or whatever environment you're designing. We also hear of environmental strategies related to water conservation. Now, graywater systems reuse rainwater for irrigating landscapes.
So, think about this for a second. The building actually collects the rain and that rainwater is reused not for drinking but for, you know, flowering the garden, for irrigating the landscape. And it's a very, very effective strategy that's also extremely sustainable.
Also related to water, we have low flow sinks. What does this mean? Or toilets. This means that the water that's being used to operate those devices is a fraction of what a typical sink or toilet may use.
And you can find these at a number of different stores when you're shopping for your client as an interior designer. And if you're aware of these items, just being aware of this will allow you to make even just a small sustainable impact makes a big difference. So, let's look at a building related to environmental strategies.
This building is a section, as we spoke about, and every aspect of this drawing or this building utilizes some sort of sustainable measure. Not only based off of what we talked about, but look at the bottom right. Active landscape, where outdoor walking paths can create reading spaces that activate landscape along the brook linking the library.
So, active landscaping means that the individual is either exercising or utilizing that land for something good, right? Native plants, finding plants that are native to the area instead of, you know, having to import. Utilizing natural daylight, you can see the large windows and the skylights. You can also see the solar panels that we're talking about, and you'll notice that a lot of solar panels will face south.
And the reason why they face south is because that's where the sun is most intense. So, if you face solar panels to the south, you're going to collect more energy than facing them to, let's say, the north. We talked about healthy and sustainable materials.
This can be utilized throughout the interior, right? Every material you choose can have a sustainable impact on the building and the environment. And even the structure in the envelope, which is the building itself and what creates the shell that individuals are surrounded by, that shell and that architecture can be completely sustainable as well. They can limit energy transfer.
They can maximize efficiency. They can help with operable windows to allow air to come into one side of the building and exit the other side of the building, which, again, as we mentioned earlier, reduces the use of, let's say, you know, an air conditioning unit. So, there are a number of ways to be sustainable.
And, again, even using one or two of these strategies will make a huge difference. Now, we hear of these buildings that are LEED certified, right? Leaders in Energy Efficient Design. And there's a series of checkmarks, right? So, to become, let's say, LEED Gold, you're going to have to meet, and I don't remember the exact number of sustainable measures that you have to meet, but it's literally checking off, let's say, it's 50 of these items.
If you capture all 50, you know, 50 different strategies, you could potentially get to either bronze, silver, or gold, or even platinum. So, the LEED strategies utilize a system that's now becoming very important in building technology that allows you to work with sustainability. And a lot of times, these LEED standards will even tell you exactly what to do in the interior design or the building itself, right? So, working with the architect, working with the client, we have opportunities to be extremely sustainable as interior designers.
Well done, everyone. Let's finish the class in the next video. I look forward to seeing you there.
