Summary

This introductory text offers a comprehensive overview of the basic knowledge required for the education of the professional interior designer. It emphasizes the foundation of and expertise in designing for people and their environments. The integrated approach to the profession meets the program standards of FIDER (Foundation for Interior Design Education Research). Coverage includes the technical and aesthetic areas of interior design as practical in both residential and commercial environments. The text looks at the creative processes interior designers use to recognize, organize, and solve problems is unusual in an introductory text. The direct relationship between the exterior and interior environments is covered, and the book points out increasing areas of responsibility - including building codes; heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems; electrical systems; and basic building structural systems. Finally, it discusses global issues of energy conservation, depletion of natural resources, recycling, and the sick building syndrome, and gives full consideration to relationships and design considerations of exterior environemts to interior design.