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- Developed
by Helena Moussatche, Ph.D., University of Florida
- Course
Objectives:
This course has two primary objectives: 1) to familiarize students with a variety of materials related to interior design; and 2) to establish the foundations for a global perspective of design and an environmentally conscientious materials selection process. The specific goals that relate to sustainable/green design are:
- To
establish the concept of interior materiality as an integral part
of the design solutions, and a life-impacting result of the designer’s
chosen criteria.
- To
develop awareness of:
- The role and responsibilities of interior designers in ensuring global environmental sustainability.
- The impact of materials on people’s health, and on global sustainability.
- Regional differences in availability, performance, and cost effectiveness that should influence the selection of materials.
- The
impact of construction systems on the performance of interior
finishing materials.
- To
develop understanding of:
- The life–cycle of interior materials and its impact on sustainability.
- The importance of identifying the sources of materials and products and their ability to renew.
- The physical attributes, characteristics, and properties of different types of materials.
- A rigorous process to define criteria for creative and conscientiously choosing materials.
- Traditional and contemporary fabrication and installation methods of materials and products as they minimize or maximize embedded energy, raw material consumption, and generation of waste.
- Methods
for testing and evaluating performance, maintenance, cost, durability,
health, and life safety of material applications.
- To
provide opportunities for students to:
- Practice environmental stewardship by selecting materials and justifying their choices.
- Explore aesthetic, technical, and environmental implications of material choices.
- Interact
with industry representatives to ask questions about their commitment
with sustainability.
- To
establish the concept of interior materiality as an integral part
of the design solutions, and a life-impacting result of the designer’s
chosen criteria.
- Type
of course in which project or unit is used:
Interior Materials is part of a series of building technology courses. This is a lecture course with a studio component where students learn how to appropriately use and evaluate materials and products by exploring contemporary issues, such as sustainability and indoor air quality, concerning human environments.
The teaching approach of this course encourages critical thinking and cooperative learning, as well as independence and self-teaching. Students are expected to demonstrate their ability to recall facts, understand ideas, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. The instructor, visiting lecturers, and manufacturers’ representatives present lectures on specific topics and/or materials providing a framework for students gathering of additional information to develop assignments. In every lecture, information on a specific type of material relates it to sustainability issues.
Class discussions are based on assigned readings and information provided by the instructor and/or visiting lecturers. Field trips and projects complement the information presented in the lectures. Additional information is gathered, explored, evaluated, organized, and presented by students, individually and in teams. Throughout the semester, students are encouraged to practice oral, reading and writing skills, drafting, rendering and imaging in a variety of assignments.
- Prerequisite
information:
This course is offered in the spring semester of the second year and requires three Architectural Design studios, History of Interiors I & II, Graphic Communications, and Theory of Interior Design as pre-requisites for enrollment.
- Content
covered in lecture or discussion:
This course covers aesthetics, functional, and environmental aspects of interior building materials focusing on characteristics, properties, and uses of a variety of interiors building materials. For each material covered, students are presented with information on all phases of a material’s life cycle - production, use and disposal – relating it to environmental sustainability concerns. In a lecture on glass, for instance, students learn about the raw materials used to produce glass, the natural resources used for generating the raw materials, the current availability of these raw materials, and their renewable or non-renewable character. They also learn about the process of manufacturing glass and examine energy consumption, the possible impact on workers’ health and safety, and the reuse or disposal of sub-products. Students are exposed to aesthetic applications of glass in interiors as they learn about a material’s physical properties, functional aspects as well as installation and maintenance requirements, indoor air quality impact, disposal procedures and recycling ability.
Contents emphasize the necessary partnership of interior designers with the industry, architects, installers, clients and inhabitants of the built environment to ensure that sustainability is incorporated in the decision making process. In addition, students gather information on specific products they select to use on projects including natural resources, manufacturing process, impacts on energy consumption and waste generation, degradation, durability, etc. Students use this information to justify the criteria they used to choose materials for their final project.
The specific content addressed in the lectures are:
- The
first lecture of the semester introduces the concepts of Global
Sustainability, Life Cycle Costing, Indoor Environmental Quality,
and Benign Design. This lecture emphasizes people’s health
and safety issues related to sustainable materials [see
Interior Materials - Lecture Outline].
- The
following four lectures are each focused on materials’ general
properties and functionality - structural and non-structural; hard,
resilient and soft characteristics - and specific systems of materials:
floor, wall and ceiling systems.
- The
remaining lectures are dedicated to examining specific materials
and there is always reference to how these materials relate to sustainable
design. The materials are grouped as; conventional and alternative
natural materials such as Wood and Bamboo; Stones and Terazzo; Concrete
and Brick; Gypsum, Plaster, and Stucco; Metals; Linoleum and Vinyl;
Fibers and Fabrics; Wall coverings and Carpet (Nylon, Wool, Sea
grass and Sisal); Glass and Plastics; Ceramic Tiles and Terracotta;
etc.
- The
outline of all lectures on specific materials consists of: general
information on materials history, characteristics and properties,
chemical composition, natural resources used, manufacturing process
and energy consumption, testing methods, commercial dimensions and
waste production, colors and shapes, installation methods, impact
on workers health, research findings that relate to sustainability
issues, conflicting evaluations, and environmental and safety concerns.
All this information is presented using images of interior applications
to illustrate the topics covered.
- The
first lecture of the semester introduces the concepts of Global
Sustainability, Life Cycle Costing, Indoor Environmental Quality,
and Benign Design. This lecture emphasizes people’s health
and safety issues related to sustainable materials [see
Interior Materials - Lecture Outline].
- Length
of project or unit:
The course takes one semester or 16 weeks. Students attend three hours of classes per week, distributed in two days. Twice a month the one-hour lecture time is used for guidance on projects or for evaluation. Out of class time required to complete the coursework varies from 2 to 6 hours per week depending on the type or phase of the assignment.
The course content is organized as two major units – Building Materials and Finishing Materials - divided into sub-units addressing a specific group of materials, e.g. metals, textiles, etc. Each sub-unit takes one to two weeks to complete. Each major unit contains a project and a test. Preparation for the tests requires an average of three hours to prepare and four hours of studying from the students’ part.
The project developed for “Building Materials” consists of a report on visits to construction sites. Students have 6-7 weeks to complete it. Field trips to construction sites require about an hour of preparation and the time spent in the site depends on the location but in most cases it takes one or two mornings or afternoons (3 to 4 hours). Preparation of the report requires 6-8 hours of teamwork.
The project on “Finishing Materials” is developed in several phases throughout the semester with instructor’s assistance. It consists of materials selection to respond to a specific design situation. This project requires one hour of instruction every two weeks, two hours a week of out-of-class students’ work throughout the semester and 8 hours a week of out-of-class teamwork in the three weeks before completion.
- Tasks
or activities assigned:
Two tests and two projects are planned for each semester [see Tests Samples]. Project 1 is a team project and Project 2 is an individual project.
The two tests cover the contents of the class notes for lectures presented by the instructor and visiting lecturers. Tests consist of multiple-choice questions administered via computer and taken in the computer lab. Class notes are posted in the class WebCT site. The first test occurs at mid-term and the second test occurs at the end of the semester. A week before the scheduled test, a study guide is posted in the WebCT class site.
Project 1 consists of a report on building materials and components identified in construction sites [see Class Assignments - Project 1].
Project 2 consists of materials selection to respond to a specific design situation. [see Class Assignments - Project 2]. The final selection is presented in two forms:
- Design
and materials boards that demonstrate the student’s understanding
of materiality through ambience, proportions, and spatial relationships
as well as visual communication skills.
- A
booklet where students organize the criteria used for material selection
as well as information and evaluations of different products and
materials selected for the project.
Field research is part of the learning experience of this course. Students visit construction sites and suppliers. Observation, questioning, and photography of building materials, techniques, and construction process complements the framework of information and vocabulary built in the classroom. Teams are expected to elaborate reports that integrate pictures and drawings with the information gathered by using different media to express their ideas.
- Design
and materials boards that demonstrate the student’s understanding
of materiality through ambience, proportions, and spatial relationships
as well as visual communication skills.
- Reading
assignment(s):
REQUIRED BOOKS
Garrison, E. M. S. (Ed.) (2002) The graphic standards guide to architectural finishes: Using Masterspec ® to evaluate, select and specify materials. New Jersey: John Wiley.
Wilhide, E. (2001) Materials: a directory for home design. Glouchester, MA: Rockport.
ARTICLES
Access floors: A step up for commercial buildings. (1998, January). Environmental Building News; 7 (1), pp. 1, 8-14.
Building materials: What makes a product green? (2000, Janaury). Environmental Building News, 9 (1). pp 1, 10 –14.
Getting the “right stuff”: A guide to green building materials retailers. (2001, April). Environmental Building News, 10 (4). pp. 1, 10-14.
Interior finish systems: Judging a building by its inside cover. (2000, November). Environmental Building News, 9 (11). pp. 1, 9-13.
Linoleum: The all-natural flooring alternative. (1998, October). Environmental Building News, 8 (9). pp. 1, 8-13.
Paint the room green. (1999, February). Environmental Building News, 8 (2). pp. 1, 11-19.
Structural engineered wood: Is it green? (1999, November). Environmental Building News, 8 (11). pp. 1, 12-17.
The search for materials is never over at George Beylerian’s resource center. (2001, March). Architectural Record, pp. 181-182.
Students are strongly recommended to subscribe to one of the professional journals such as Interiors and Sources, Interior Design, Interiors, or Environmental Building News. These journals have information cards available for acquiring brochures and product data that can help the beginning of a resource file/library. Special articles are also found in these periodicals and they serve well in supplementing information of a current nature.
- Resources
needed:
- Computer
with Internet access, Auto CAD, 3D-Viz, Photoshop, Power Point capabilities.
- A
resource center with samples of a variety of materials.
- Drawing
and drafting tools and materials.
- Ability
to participate in field trips.
- Videos:
- “Resourceful: Materials and methods for building construction”. (Date n/a) Los Osos, CA: San Luis Video.
- “The art of stone design”. (1996) West Milford, NJ: The Stone Promotion Council.
- “The
Billiberica house” (1999) PBS, This Old House Episode 1916.
(has an excellent segment on the production of linoleum).
- Computer
with Internet access, Auto CAD, 3D-Viz, Photoshop, Power Point capabilities.
- Evaluation
criteria:
The following areas are measured and evaluated by the instructor:
- Understanding
of concepts and content information.
- Demonstration
of critical thinking and creativity at the undergraduate level.
- Effective
use of graphic and verbal communication skills.
- Attendance
and participation in class.
- Participation
in team assignments.
Projects are graded based on form and content: relevance of the information gathered, organization of the material, visual and/or verbal communication, demonstration of critical thinking and creativity.
The portfolio and material selection of Project 2 is presented to the instructor at different levels of completion for periodical evaluation and feedback. The final submittal is at the end of the semester.
GRADING
Participation and Attendance................................10%
Project 1 (team report)..........................................20%
Project 2 (Materials portfolio and boards)............40%
Tests (2).................................................................30% - Understanding
of concepts and content information.
- Exemplars
of student outcomes:
[see Interior Materials -Work Exemplars]
- References
or bibliography used for project:
AIA (1998) Environmental resource guide.
Ballast, D. K. (2002) Interior design reference manual: A guide to the NCIDQ exam. Belmont, CA: Professional Publications.
Barnett, D. L. & Browning, W. D. (1995) A primer on sustainable building. Snowmass, CO: Rocky Mountain Institute.
Berleant, A. (1992) The aesthetics of the environment. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Bower, John. (1993) Healthy house building: A design & construction guide. Unionville, IN: The Healthy House Institute.
Brown, D. E. et al. (2000) Sustainable architecture white papers. New York, NY: Earth Pledge Foundation.
Chiras, Daniel. (2000) The natural house: A complete guide to healthy, energy-efficient, environmental homes. Vermont: Chelsea Green.
Cowan, Stuart & Van Der Ryn, Sim. (1996) Ecological design. Washington, DC: Island Press
Crowter, Richard. L.(1992) Ecologic architecture. Stoneham, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
CMHC (1997) Building materials for the environmentally sensitive. Canada: CMHC.
Drummond, W. et al. (1999) Life cycle costing guidelines for materials and building systems for Florida’s public educational facilities. Vol. 1 & 2. Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of Education.
Environmental Building News
Garrison, E. M. S. (Ed.) (2002) The graphic standards guide to architectural finishes: using Masterspec ® to evaluate, select and specify materials. New Jersey: John Wiley.
Hall, W. (1993) Contract interior finishes: A handbook of materials, products and applications. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill.
Harmon, S. K. (2001) The codes guidebook for interiors. New York, NY: John Wiley.
Harte, J. et al. (1991) Toxics a to z: A guide to everyday pollution hazards. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
IEQ Strategies: materials specification guide. Arlington, MA: Cutter Information Corp.
Kibert, C. J. (1999) Reshaping the built environment. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Pearson, David. (1989) The natural house book. New York: Gaia Books.
Pearson, David. (1996) The natural house catalog. New York: Gaia Books.
Pilatowicz, G. (1995) Eco-interiors. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Part I: Environmental Issues.
Pile, J. (1995) Interior design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Riggs, J. Rosemary (2003) Materials and components of interior architecture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Rosen, H. J. & Heineman, T. (1996) Architectural materials for construction. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Rousseau, David & Wasley, James. (1997) Healthy by design. Vancouver: Harley & Marks.
Rousseau, D.; Rea, W.J. & Enwright, J. (1988) Your home, your health, & well-being. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.
Sampson, Carol A. (1991) Techniques for estimating materials, costs and time for interior designers. New York, NY: Whitney, 1991.
Wilhide, E. (2001) Materials: A directory for home design. Glouchester, MA: Rockport.
Yeager & Teter-Justice (2000) Textiles for residential and commercial interiors. NY: Fairchild.
