A growing body of research in evidence-based design (EBD) demonstrates that elements of the physical environment correlate with health-related outcomes. This has prompted hospitals across the country to recommend that the architects and designers they hire have demonstrated experience in EBD; that they know both how to apply existing EBD studies and conduct and publish their own research. As a result, healthcare design-based firms have responded by hiring researchers trained in a doctoral program. With titles like ‘‘Director of Research,’’ these individuals are advancing the awareness and appropriate application of research findings, as well as contributing original, empirical studies to the field of EBD. These researchers may also conduct postoccupancy evaluations and provide education, both internally and externally. Initiating a research unit within a design firm is no easy task, and requires skills above and beyond being a solid researcher. This role is ideal for the person who wants to keep one foot in academia, but is less interested in pursuing a tenure-track position. Only a small percentage of design firms have doctoral-level researchers on staff. Ultimately, the fate of in-house researchers rests on their ability to add value to the firm—to spur innovative design solutions, to increase the firm’s credibility, and to help win work.

This study is a Web–based investigation that utilizes virtual reality technology to understand the factors considered for residential furniture purchase and furniture style preference. In residential interior design, furniture has significant financial and symbolic meaning. From a broader perspective, residential furniture is important to the domestic furniture industry as well as to woodworking and textile markets. Despite this importance, little is known about how consumers make residential furniture choices and what designs or styles are preferred. The purpose of this study is to understand the most important factors involved in choosing living room furniture and to identify preferences for furniture style using an online virtual showroom application. In this survey, 301 college participants responded to questions regarding priorities and style preferences when purchasing living room furniture. The participants evaluated 117 living room furniture items representing three style categories: traditional, modern, and casual. The survey results demonstrated significant differences between males and females in their priority considerations, style preferences for furniture, and the number of possibilities they try before making final choices. This empirical study is an effort to provide important information on consumer characteristics and their furniture choices for interior practitioners and furniture industry personnel in a three–dimensional virtual furniture showroom constructed for the study.

Critical thinking skills are essential to meeting the economic, sustainable, and social challenges of the future. The purpose of this study was to explore critical thinking in interior design students using the W. G. Perry (1968) scheme, a model of epistemic cognitive development describing how thinking in college students progresses from black–and–white absolutes to a contextual understanding of knowledge. The authors present findings from a study involving 32 beginning and intermediate interior design students who were empirically assessed on global and design–specific thought development using the Measure of Intellectual Development ( Widick & Knefelkamp, 1974 ) and the Measure of Designing ( Portillo, 1987 ), respectively. The study objectives were to examine thought development in interior design students, investigate the relationship between global and design thinking, and explore relationships between thought development, student performance, and class standing. The results supported three levels of thought development: dualistic, transitional, and multiplistic with overall thinking appeared to be more advanced than thinking in design. The study also revealed both types of thinking significantly related to studio performance and class standing. The Perry model appears to have strong potential for understanding thought development in interior design students.

Researchers conducted a post–occupancy evaluation at the new location of a 174–person architectural firm in Boston. Interviews of the 11–member design team were conducted to determine the original primary design intentions for the project. Three design intentions were identified and tested in the completed office, openness, community, and flexibility, in addition to an evaluation of satisfaction regarding the two spaces. Seventy subjects responded to a six–page questionnaire. The evaluation revealed that the staff was more satisfied with the new office than the old and that the design intentions was generally met. Input was provided regarding potential modifications to the physical environment.

A discussion of the locus of design knowledge is currently underway as well as a search for clear boundaries defined by a formal Body of Knowledge (BoK). Most attempts to define a BoK involve the creation of “jurisdictional boundaries of knowledge” that “allow those who possess this knowledge to claim authority over its application” ( Guerin & Thompson, 2004 , p. 1). This claim is attractive but such control may no longer be an option in the Internet Age, when even the call for the discussion of the BoK definition process is on the Web. Marshall–Baker (2005) argued that “the moment knowledge is bordered it is no longer knowledge” (p. xiv). Whereas data and information are easily captured and generalized, knowledge is specific to users and their evolving understandings, implying purposeful application over time. This paper explores knowledge as process transcending boundaries and seeks to answer not “where” the locus lies but rather “what” that locus could be. Using a feminist framework, I argue that in conjunction with the work done thus far we should move toward the creation of an inclusive model for the BoK. In such a model, the value of the profession is felt as a result of inclusion in and interaction with the knowledge creation process. I propose that the BoK should not be a printed document, but a Web–based organizational system that supports change and innovation. Wikipedia provides this type of inclusive, mutable system, and the same framework could be applied to the creation of a systemic BoK. I call this creation the WikiID.

This paper explores the idea of “risk” by examining the role of three women in interior design in the twentieth century (Elsie de Wolfe, 1865–1950; Dorothy Draper, 1888–1969; and Sister Parish, 1929–1994). Women's roles as arbiters of taste were consistent with the social construction of the female gender at the turn of the century; that these roles involved risk—the perception of possible loss or injury—is, for the most part, overlooked by social historians. Our theoretical framework is built upon three keywords from the vocabularies of postmodern social history and women's history: discourse, experience, and agency. These three terms represent the important recognition that the collective understanding of history is not static, but is dependent on the social constructs of the period, as well as (1) how individuals experienced, interpreted, and acted within these constructs and (2) how historians understand and interpret the individual actions in the context of the same constructs. These concepts suggest that individual characters have agency (i.e., power or choice) in framing or reframing an event, based on their unique view of the world. It is through agency that we explore unique qualities of de Wolfe, Draper, and Parish. The stories of de Wolfe, Draper, and Parish demonstrate that risk of traditional values, risk of public persona, and risk of financial security all influenced the ways that they navigated the social and economic circumstances that surrounded them. Each risk, whether imposed on or undertaken by our protagonists, was a seed of change that ultimately affected the social and professional construct of the field of interior design.

Journal of Interior DesignVolume 32, Issue 3 p. 109-110 Visual arts Entry Table Series Tim Cozzens, Tim Cozzens Columbia College - CbSearch for more papers by this author Tim Cozzens, Tim Cozzens Columbia College - CbSearch for more papers by this author First published: 02 June 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-1668.2007.tb00544.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume32, Issue3May 2007Pages 109-110 RelatedInformation