Q: What are the challenges and opportunities commercial interior designers and architects face in the South American market at this time?

A: In today’s market there are both exciting opportunities as well as challenges to overcome for architects and designers. One of the main challenges is that the South American market was dormant for some time, but it has picked up and is expanding quite quickly.

Related to this, the value of design has not necessarily been recognized in the same way it has been in other countries, so as architects and designers we place an emphasis on collaborating with clients in South Americaon solutions that drive the benefits and impact of design today. Design is now front and center. Where it may not have been valued before, clients are now more than ever recognizing the significance of the power of design. The design of corporate interiors has developed over the past 10 years and has also become a mainstream business in most countries inSouth America. At Gensler we provide a strategy and rationale in the design that reflects our clients’ work modes, process and brand. This goes beyond selecting palettes and furniture to truly understanding how our clients work and providing a workplace that promotes high performance. We instill in our clients that design is a critical factor in maximizing the return on their investment.

Another common challenge is that materials, which are readily available elsewhere, are harder to come by in South America given the import tax. Designers therefore have to develop innovative design solutions for clients, utilizing available but often limited, material selections.

While there have been challenges, I also see a light at the end of the tunnel for the design industry here and opportunities in the rich, multi faceted South American business arena. With the market picking up, there has been an increased demand for international design professionals and global design experience. I am native to Brazil, and intimately familiar with the South American approach to business, but also provide clients with a valued international professional experience.

Q: You have worked extensively in both North and South America. What do you see as the primary differences between design practice in these two geographic regions (design trends, best business practices, methods of project delivery, etc.)?

A: Working with a variety of international clients on design projects in both North and South America, I have seen first hand that there are differences in design practices. Firstly, there are variances in project delivery. In North America, there are defined stages of the design process that include concept, schematic, design, construction documents and administration. In South America, the process is less defined and it is typical to just create drawings for a design build delivery approach. International firms like Gensler, who are practicing in South America, are able to differentiate themselves by showcasing staged methodologies that originated in the North American practice. By using a process-oriented delivery approach we are able to redefine what’s possible for clients through design that is inspirational, financially beneficial and performance driven.

There are also differences in design trends, especially as they pertain to office space. In North America, it is typical to find twelve to fifteen square meters per person and in South American (eg. cities, such as Sao Paulo), seven to ten square meters is seen as a premium. With the existing import tax, South America still only has access to about 40 percent of the materials that can be found in North America. But, I am thrilled that there is a paradigm shift occurring with the uptick in the market, and design is becoming more valued in South America. Clients have started to request, by name, products such as Eero Saarinen chairs as they are now recognized as a design status symbol.

Q: What advice would you give to young designers about the value of an international/global perspective in design practice in the years to come?

A: For architects and designers, the value of a global design perspective is priceless. I recommend that young designers look beyond what they are taught in school, and use their curiosity to explore. They should travel and see the world; to open up their eyes to what else is out there. Within the firm and office, I can often tell those who have traveled versus those who have not as they demonstrate a different perspective on global issues and understanding of today’s design influences. Also, I highly suggest that young architects and designers be fluent in English, as it is key to communicating with local and global clients. And- today English is the most highly spoken/understood language in this industry.

Q: What inspires you in your work? What is the most inspiring interior space you have ever been in?

A: My design work is inspired by the idea that ‘less is more’. For me it is the spaces with clean lines, strong design concepts, and a sense of minimalism that make you feel most comfortable and help motivate creativity in your own work. Projects are meant to be beautiful, comfortable, and functional places in which to work and live. The spaces in which the interiors have a connection to their exteriors tend to be the best and most successful interior spaces as well.

I have traveled extensively, and seen a wide variety of inspiring and beautiful spaces, but it is my own home in Sao Paulo that continues to provide me with the majority of my inspiration. My home is a place of comfort for me, but also a reminder of my world travels, as it showcases the trinkets and items collected throughout years of being abroad.

Q: What would you like to leave as your legacy?

A: I worked for a global corporation in the business world for 15 years. After working there for over a decade, I recognized that I wanted to pursue a new career direction where I could have an impact on future generations and make a difference in the world. At that point, I made the decision to go to architecture school. As an architect, I felt that I could design game changing spaces for people to work and live, and they would leave a lasting impression. Now, as the Office Director for Gensler Brazil, I also have the opportunity to guide and work closely with the firm’s young architects and designers. I hope to assist in inspiring those who are the future of the architecture and design industry, and help them define their own career path.

Designers have long sought to demonstrate the value of design to their customers on any level, and actually quantifying that value is something like the Holy Grail. Now MindClick CEO JoAnna Abrams believes that the results of the MindClick/Expedia research can help draw a direct link for hotel owners and operators between sustainable design strategies and improved business results–thus ramping up sustainability efforts in a market sector that has undeniably lagged behind in the environmental movement.

A majority of respondents to the MindClick/Expedia survey ranged in age from 40 to 65 years, are college-educated, and report a household income of $75,000 or more, and travel for business, leisure, or both and primarily stay in full-service economy, limited-stay economy, and resort properties. Their attitudes about sustainability are consistent with those of the broader U.S. market, with 57% saying they are very or extremely concerned about climate change. Two out of three believe that hotels need to be more sustainable and 75% define sustainability in hospitality as “hotels that are built, furnished, and operated in ways that are better for the guest, better for the community, and better for the planet.” The top strategies that define “better for the guest, better for the community, and better for the planet” are energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste reduction according to 66% of respondents and the purchase of products that are made sustainably, according to 52% of respondents.

According to the results of the study, many consumers will take environmental factors into consideration when selecting a hotel. For example, following the typical factors of cleanliness (95%), quality of service (87%), and sleep quality (86%), 59% of respondents ranked indoor air quality—a key element of sustainability—as important to their selection decision, indicating that sustainability factors do present an opportunity for hotel properties to distinguish themselves from the competition. Furthermore, 80% of respondents recollect sustainability communications at a hotel property visited in the last year. Consumers also connect room furnishings and finishes to health, well-being, and environmental responsibility. Among respondents, 74% say the mattress, 69% say the carpet, and 66% say the paint can contribute to the design of healthier rooms, and 85% say light bulbs, 83% say plumbing fixtures, and 72% say lamps can contribute to the design of rooms that are better for the environment.

At the bottom line, 93% of respondents said they would choose a hotel that implements and promotes sustainable purchasing vs. a hotel that focuses solely on sustainable operations, and 75% indicated they would have a more positive impression of a hotel that follows sustainable purchasing practices—suggesting that hotels might leverage sustainable design strategies to gain competitive advantage.

For a more in-depth look at the study, click here.

Heading to HD Expo? Join JoAanna Abrams and a panel of design experts for Leveraging Consumer Attitudes Toward Sustainability in Hospitality on Tuesday, May 15 at 2pm PST in the Interface Hospitality booth – 2631. 

MindClick CEO JoAnna Abrams is discussing different aspects of the MindClick/Expedia survey results at several thought leadership activities during HD Expo in Las Vegas, May 15-17. One of these will take place at the InterfaceHOSPITALITY Booth (#2631) on Tuesday, May 15 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm, when Abrams will moderate a dialog between hospitality designers Carolyn Auger of Blackdog Studio in Atlanta, Stina Funch of HBA in Los Angeles, and Billie Thorne of CMMI in Atlanta, focused on the role of the A&D community in helping their clients achieve improved business results through a focus on sustainable design in their hotel/motel properties. 

We felt a notable shift in the atmosphere at Living Future 2012 from previous years, with a greater emphasis on collaboration towards achieving higher purpose goals.  The principles of a more sustainable built environment were connected with their impact on social issues and relationships.  An emergent theme was the deep focus on being mindful of the local community context and committed to design that embraces and celebrates the local place.  A more sustainable future requires a higher level of consciousness.  Green buildings are more than stuff; they are about relationships, connection to place.  Dialogue was seen as a critical tool for reshaping the future, creating new interactions with product manufacturers and contractors.

A highlight of the final day of Living Future 2012 was having three of our colleagues speaking on panel sessions.  Lindsay James’ session on Living Economies for Living Future crafted a powerful message reframing the relationship between our economic systems and our natural systems.  We need to remind ourselves that the economic system is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.  The economic system is something that we created ourselves and that we can change, where as the principles underlying natural systems have endured for 3.8 billion years and determine whether we survive as a species.  It is up to us to change the economic system so that it best meets our collective needs and priorities.  The interactive session explored a new set of economic principles, such as ‘make the polluter pay’, ‘recognize the natural economy’, ‘shop less, live more’, and ‘microlending’

Aligning with the conference theme, Nadine Gudz and Marj Barlow, relationship coach for Interface, led a session on Women’s Leadership – A Journey Through the Ages.  The women panelists, ranging in ages from 20s to 80s, explored their experiences, goals, and influences across the decades.  Attendees explored their own experiences with leadership and emerged reignited about their strengths and possibilities.

We were honored to be a part of the Living Future conference and look forward to discovering “Resilience & Regeneration” in Seattle in 2013.

Vincent Martinez, Director of Research, Architecture 2030 with Melissa Vernon

The projects profiled in the Red List to Red Flag session all struggled with getting products whose composition complied with Living Building Challenge requirements. It was estimated that 8-20 hours were spent on researching and documenting each product initially. With experience, the time dropped to 2.5 hours. The big question was how to best share the research to reduce learning curves for others?

The Markets Are Relationships session started to tackle the even bigger question of how we get better materials when we don’t like the materials that we identify in building products? It may be time to take integrative design upstream to the product design process to improve communication and collaboration in the materials ecosystem.

At lunch, we participated in a meeting of the Health Product Declaration (HPD) working group to chart the future for scaling up HPDs as a new tool for transparency and material health. With 26 other manufacturers joining since we committed last October, the Pilot is underway with manufacturers submitting draft HPDs by May 16th. HPDs aim to address the kind of product ingredients disclosure challenges project teams face.  There are still many details left to be determined in the pilot, but we see HPDs as a way to build on the transparency leadership we established with our commitment to Environmental Product Declarations.

The topic of Biophilia packed an afternoon session. Whereas sustainability focuses on how humans influence the natural environment, biophilia focuses on nature’s (positive) influence on humans. The conversation moved from the studies of the beneficial psychological effects of nature, to how to design buildings and cities that provide these biophilic benefits. Watch this space for the latest on our approach to biophilia in June.

The entire North America Xtreme Green Team descended on Portland, Oregon this week to attend the Living Future conference: Melissa Vernon, Lindsay James, Nadine Gudz and Mikhail Davis. We are not here to exhibit, but simply to learn and share as part of this community of deep green thought leaders. One of our roles at Interface is being a two-way conduit for sustainability insight. So in addition to sharing the stories and the latest innovations from our own sustainability journey, we are out in the world gathering new ideas and bringing them back to Interface to inform our strategy and messaging.

The Xtreme Green Team at Living Future 2012 (L to R: Marj Barlow, Melissa Vernon, Lindsay James, Mikhail Davis and Nadine Gudz)

As a proud member of this growing community, Interface is committed to the conference’s vision of a living future that is “Culturally Rich, Socially Just, and Ecologically Restorative.” We feel we are uniquely positioned through Ray Anderson’s vision and competitive spirit to lead the way for manufacturers toward this positive future. In the Interface context, we understand the Living Building Challenge to be much like Mission Zero applied to a building: eliminating negative impact while aspiring to be restorative.

After the rousing opening keynote by Vandana Shiva (who is truly one of the “Women Reshaping the World” – this year’s theme), we are excited for two more days on the cutting edge of green. Two members of our team are speaking on panels: Nadine Gudz and our longtime consultant Marj Barlow are speaking Friday morning on Women’s Leadership. Marj is the recent author of “The Possible Woman Steps Up” (be sure to follow us on Twitter where we’ll give away a signed copy of her book today and tomorrow) and will share her 80+ years of wisdom on learning to bring your highest and best self forward. Lindsay James is also speaking on Friday morning on Living Economies for a Living Future.

We look forward to sharing the conference with you on our blog and Twitter these next few days. Send us your comments, questions, and bright ideas, and be sure to say “hello” if you see us at the show!

Astonishingly, kitsch was in evidence this year. Bright colors, golden tones, random shapes, leading to the concept of living as you feel and feeling how you live. There was a profusion of pink, yellow, green, mirrors, jaguars – or better saying a full zoo – sharing the same space.

Obviously grey, beige, white and black played their role, but still the message was clear: everything is possible and preference is relative.

Italians are specialists in communicating through images. They know how to create, develop and present an idea. Even better, they know how to be legitimated for ideas that wouldn’t be as much accepted as if coming from other cultures. It’s not a coincidence that Milan is a reference in new trends.

Nevertheless, the best part comes afterwards. It’s productive to our daily routines to process the ideas, summarize the concepts and extract meanings from everything we saw on the design week. Design is the essence of our work, and from time to time it’s good for our minds to get some distance from a cartesian world and bring a wave of freshness and inspiration into our drawing boards.

Antonio is the principal partner at Dante Della Manna in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He is LEED AP and very recognized professional in the Corporate segment.   

The show is situated on Milan’s fairgrounds, which is quite large and offers extensive space to see over 1700 vendors and their displays. There are 22 buildings that house all of this, and so it’s virtually impossible to see everything even in the week that the show is around. The pavilions are divided up by type of products, and eight of these are devoted to mainly commercial and retail companies, such as Moroso, Vitra, Molteni, Fiam, etc. There are five pavillions devoted to kitchen design, and then another two for bath. We focused mainly on the design companies providing furniture for contract use, but even that was a challenge to see it all.

Trends were abundant, as were plenty of sightings of cool things that we will expect to see in the US in the future. Like most trade shows, the products on display range anywhere from already on the market in the US and Europe, to prototypes that may never reach the point of mass manufacture. But seeing all of this helps to put today’s market in context and give us some strong ideas about where the world of design is headed.

One thing we noticed right away was a desire to tell the story of “process”, whether it be about how a product comes to life or how it can be deconstructed (or easily constructed). This is most likely a reaction to how products can easily be treated as a commodity that can be knocked off, as many of us today are craving authenticity and honesty in our world. Kartell went so far as to use this concept in their booth, showing how all their new products have come to life in sketches, videos, and prototypes.

Kartell showing mockups for Foliage sofa and chairs

Kartell's Foliage Sofa designed by Patricia Urquiola

Another trend emerging is the softening of furniture. What do we mean by that? For many years, minimalism and clean design only allowed crisp, hard edges and uniformity of materials, many of which were metal. Not so any more! We can easily see this trend in chair design, where almost everyone had a side chair that had wood legs and either an upholstered or hard seat in a different material. We also saw this trend in lounge seating, where cushions are overscaled and loose. We saw this in tables with the top being one material and the base being wood. There was also the addition of rope and woven details, mixed in with wood. This trend seems to come from the idea that we all desire materials that not only speak to authenticity (wood over man-made materials), but also that we respect nostalgia. As we move into uncertain times in a world dominated by technology, and natural and man-made crises, we are looking to more familiar things that make us comfortable.

Other popular trends that we have already started to see emerge here in the US are the growing use of communal tables (mixing the familial with the familiar), blending globalism and multicultural influences into design objects, and more casual and relaxed living (since work, home, and life are all blended).

Communal table by Arco

For more design insights from Royce, visit www.repeatnorepeat.com or follow her on Twitter @RepeatNoRepeat. 

Very exciting to be posting from Milan, the design capital of the universe (at least for this week).

The beauty about Milan Design Week is that it is not just about i Saloni, the main trade show that showcases all types of Italian and European furniture, bath, and kitchen products. The entire city embraces design and participates in the festivities, making design a veritable “cause celebre” and indeed one of Italy’s great exports.

Before heading to the Saloni at the fairgrounds, I visited one area in the hip Zona Tortona that is part of the city’s extra events called “fuori salone”, literally meaning “outside” the show. Once there, I was greeted by graffiti  shouting dismay at all the design madness (“Design ruins our lives”).

Surely this sentiment is at odds with the city’s thriving cultural scene as well as commitment to promoting Italian design, but it made me think about just what is the role of design. Design first and foremost solves problems to give people solutions for living and working. And design can change lives for the better (see what MASS Design is doing in Rwanda). Design can also bring a sense of purpose, order, and resolve in a chaotic world. At least this is what I tell myself when I go to work every day. So after that encounter with the graffiti, I then met these two guys hawking goods clearly “not made by a designer”.

Was this another reaction against the swarm of people who descend on Milan disrupting the natural order of the city, or was this performance art? Or even design itself? Since my Italian is rusty, I couldn’t get a good answer. It is clear however, that access to design sometimes can appear to be for designers only, and many feel left out. Good stuff to think about as I moved into the show…more in the next post…

For more design insights from Royce, visit www.repeatnorepeat.com or follow her on Twitter @RepeatNoRepeat. 

Published in 1962, Rachel Carson’s cornerstone book, Silent Spring, is often recognized for launching the environmental movement. To draw analogy from the craft of masonry, the cornerstone is the first stone set in the construction of a foundation, the reference for all other stones, thereby influencing the entire structure.

A biologist’s call to action, Carson challenged the practices of agricultural scientists, chemical industrialists and governments, warned of the impacts of toxins in the environment and threats of bioaccumulation. She exposed the danger and futility of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides as more and more insects and fungal diseases evolved immunity to chemical control substances like DDT, which were destroying the ecological systems we and others depend on for life.

Attacked by the chemical industry and governments, while battling breast cancer, her courageous leadership led to the development of some of the first environmental regulations, protection and conservation measures.

Carson called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world. She acknowledged that humans are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. In other words, by harming the natural world, we are harming ourselves. In fact, we are nature. Our bodies are walking ecosystems, providing homes to microscopic organisms living on the tongue, teeth, and skin and in the intestine.

She reminded us, however, that human beings are but one small part of nature distinguished primarily by our power to alter it, in some cases irreversibly.

Rachel Carson was a keystone. To borrow from ecology, a keystone species has a dramatic role in a community as its presence/absence significantly impacts the lives of others.

What does all of this mean for business?

Interface founder, Ray Anderson, might have responded with a question he would typically ask audiences, “What’s the business case for destroying the ecological systems we and others depend on for life?” Interface’s fundamental rethinking of its relationship with the natural world inspired Interface to step up its game, follow a different path and climb Mount Sustainability.

At Interface, it also means delivering sustainable design from the company level and how we work together, to the molecular level in terms of the ingredients that constitute our products. Science-based tools like Life Cycle Assessment are critical to making the right decisions about product ingredients based on reducing and eliminating environmental impact and stewarding our products into a closed loop system.

It also means “thinking like a movement, acting like an organization.” This is the mantra of the Tamarack Institute in Ontario, Canada and serves as an invitation to think beyond our individual organizations and their day-to-day operations towards a much larger vision. When we think like an organization, we use fewer levers to move forward, whereas thinking like a movement uses as many levers as possible through strategic collaborations and requires understanding the complexities of systemic change.

Silent Spring is recognized as a cornerstone of the environmental movement, and Rachel Carson was most certainly a game-changing keystone, but as we mark 50 years of the environmental movement, I hope 2012 serves as a true milestone: a turning point, not just an event. Perhaps as more organizations think like a movement and act consciously and deliberately as an organization, more might evolve as touchstones – templates for change and places of inspiration. What’s the alternative? Unfortunately, we can’t afford another 50 years to figure it out.
Read more from these sources:
http://www.rachelcarson.org/
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/05/reviews/carson-spring.html
http://www.silentspring.org/