Sustainable Interior Design Week

This week I have been joining the sustainable interior design talk, I'm always looking at different ways in which I can be more sustainable with my interior design and everyday choices so this has been a perfect opportunity to get more information and widen my knowledge. The week has been quite intensive as not only have I had lectures to attend, as well as these sustainable classes but I have enjoyed every single one of them and think they have been super useful for me.

Below I have added some of the notes I took during the talks, the talks happen every year, I cannot wait for the next one to see what has changed in a year and what we can look forward to in the future of sustainable interior design.

I learnt a lot about different toxic ingredients I materials and their effect on our health, some of the most popular ones mentioned were carbon monoxide, asbestos, hydrogen sulfide which are all very dangerous and extreme care must be taken when dealing with these materials. Its always advised having a professional remove any toxic materials or substance to prevent incidents.

Learning about water usage in our home and ways to reduce it as well as the impact natural sunlight has on our homes. The talk mentioned that its important to have lots of natural sunlight in spaces, however, we also have to remember about different climates around the world, meaning that some buildings also need shade. This was something I never thought about in much detail as in the UK, we don't have much sunlight so we don't need a lot of shaded areas, however, for example in brazil where this talk was happening, the designers must think about ways of introducing natural sunlight but also ways in which it can be blocked.

Exploring natural lighting, biophilia, acoustics and thermal comfort. Biophilia has been the theme of mt designs and projects for the past 3 years as I have always believed that we should surround ourselves with plants and natural materials. The topic of acoustics has been interesting for me as there are so many different options to improve acoustics in a space such as acoustic panels, screens, furniture, but the thing which surprised me the most was plants. I didn't know that they could help with acoustics in a room, however, it turns out they're a great option for a natural sound absorbent.