We have included Health issues in our articles from time to time precisely because we are always learning more about the impacts of materials, light, colors and equipment on human health.
Research science, field experience and client feedback are our main sources for health impact information, and we pay strict attention to the details. It is vitally important for us to make very sure that your Interior design installation is both beautiful and healthy!
Manufacturers and suppliers have met many challenges, over time, as the scientific and health communities learned new facts about everything from dangerous fumes from some synthetics, to the negative affects of seating units on our backs, legs and necks.
Lighting is consequentially powerful! And, that’s a fact. Our lighting choices, in conjunction with colors and materials, can have amazing effects on eyesight, nerves, moods and attitudes. As lighting, fabrics, floor covering and wall finishing components’ technology grew and changed, we became aware of the more subtle connections between our physical selves and our Interior design components.
Many strides have been made concerning controlling and manipulating acoustics – in home or at work. The days of unwanted reverberation, footsteps echoing loudly in hallways and difficulty achieving the sound control you want – are gone! The assault on the health of your hearing has many available solutions. Expertly designed wearable sound mitigation items work in concert with sound-absorbing floor, wall and ceiling materials – designed for both function and beauty.
Ergonomics, which we have discussed before, has become a regular consideration in both Commercial and Residential furniture specification. Workplace injuries that were traced to seating issues have been greatly affected. Employees who spend long hours at computers must have seating that considers those long hours. Such appropriate seating is connected to computer screens technology and appropriate lighting; and, an entire circle of health impacts exists in that relationship alone.
Floor covering has grown up, too! The connection between back injuries and hard flooring helped inspire solutions that moved beyond that rubber mat in commercial kitchens. (Anyway, those mats were more about preventing slipping than relieving back strain!) Long hours standing – and traveling – on concrete understructure, often with no or little covering, was never comfortable. Ways to substantially address the issue may have been slow in arriving, but in today’s workplaces there are many solutions – and most of them are engineered to prevent back and leg fatigue and injury.
Wall and window covering materials matter a lot! From paint to paper to fabric and stone, changes have evolved to address everything from fumes from synthetics to particles shedding from fabrics. Lead in paint has been banned. In business and professional offices, in homes and in institutional facilities of all kinds, health concerns are in the forefront of our choices.
Here are two examples of keeping health in mind, in ways you might not think about. Example One is the advent of “carpet tiles!” The number one reason for having to replace carpet (particularly in commercial eating places) is accumulated soil so embedded in carpeting it no longer responds to reasonable cleaning. With carpeting which is composed of individual “tiles,” replacement of heavily trafficked or deeply soiled areas is an easy process, is lower in cost and definitely addresses the need to avoid some important health issues, such as insect attraction and infestation. Instead of replacing an entire carpeted area, you replace only where needed. Example Two is the realization among health experts that sitting for very long periods of time is downright dangerous! Flexible workstations that allow a worker to quickly adjust desk height to a standing position can make all the difference – for blood circulation, relief from fatigue and a positive attitude adjustment!
There are many examples of changes and improvements in the choices of Interior design components that take your health into consideration. Discuss special circumstances with your Interior design team. Your professional Interior designer and team are well informed of what is available to make your home, business, factory or professional facility a healthier place to be!
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer (CID) in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
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