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Introduction
Interior design professionals have appropriate education and experience and should be involved in disaster relief efforts. Given their essential designated role in creating the everyday built environment, interior designers can contribute significantly to such efforts. They are specially educated and trained to assess, plan and develop the built interior environment. Their education also equips interior designers with the skills necessary to ensure safety, as well as promote health and well-being within the spaces they design. The National Council for Interior Design Qualification (2004), the primary organization dedicated to the scope and practice of interior design, describes the role of this built environment profession as:
[…] a multi-faceted one in which creative and technical solutions are applied within a structure to achieve a built interior environment. These solutions are functional, enhance the quality of life and culture of the occupants, and are aesthetically attractive.
Designers’ abilities to address “creative technical solutions” will be exemplified herein through an examination of student-generated temporary shelter designs. Additionally, this paper will help portray the profession’s knowledge, abilities, and human-centered approach to design and showcase their potential to play a vital role in disaster relief efforts in designing temporary shelters for survivors. In this regard, Haigh and Amaratung (2010) agree that “built environment disciplines are well placed to inform decision-making and develop appropriate solutions for displaced persons and evacuees”.
The topic of disaster relief and emergency shelter use has garnered a great deal of interest across multiple disciplines in recent years. Researchers, academics and practitioners from interior design are no exception. Aquilino (2011) reminds us that, “[…] built environment professionals are vital in creating significant change in how disaster relief and development are practiced”. Disaster relief planning that is “moving beyond single discipline approaches is undoubtedly gaining global acceptance” (McEntire, 2007), since it couples broad-based knowledge with multidisciplinary perspectives.
Accepting that interior design’s knowledge and skills can contribute to multidisciplinary disaster relief approaches, the challenge then comes in convincing other disciplines. Unfortunately, even within the closely related built environment professions, interior design is rarely considered a significant partner. Konigk (2011) notes that professionals view interior designers’ role as one that can be managed by architects. Related fields’ indifference to the profession of interior design is not the sole obstacle. Conventional...