INTERIOR DESIGN INTERVENTIONS

Post 132 - by Gautam Shah 

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 Building Engineering was the pioneer field of Design out of which many specialties like Architecture, Civil Engineering and Interior Designing have separated. All these skills deal with buildings using many common materials and techniques. Interior Design as a result has certain affinity to Architecture. In recent years many other design skills like Urban Design, Town Planning, Mass or Public housing, Landscape architecture, etc. have emerged from architecture. In future many other skills may also emerge from Interior Design.

A building once constructed is initially readied for occupation by the original designer. Buildings last for ages and during the lifespan, must be altered and updated several times. Architects or Building Engineers are unavailable, or have no income incentive for such 'frivolity'. During early middle ages, or perhaps even earlier, low-skilled 'Art -Painters' were hired to paint and decorate old buildings inside and outside. These painters known as building decorators or renovators worked along with their associates, to not only paint but undertake repairs, make furniture and update furnishings. Many crafts-persons like, Iron smiths, Guilders, Glass blowers, Weavers, Embroiders, Rug and Carpet makers, Sculptors, Mural makers, were casually associated with the Decorator, as jobbers and suppliers. Later the Decorator or renovator had a team of hired people who moved from site to site locations. These services for the building were always distinct from the Architecture or Building Engineering. Interior Decorator or renovator was neither a variant, nor subservient to the architect.

Illustrations from the James Shoolbred & Company's 1876 catalogue

The vendors or crafts-persons, creators of complex craft entities worked from their traditional centres. The interior decorator or renovator also worked as a facilitator, scheduling and coordinating the activities at a site. The decorator or renovator even offered comprehensive design solutions with alternatives to the clients. It was a well-documented strategy, serving two basic objectives.

•  It helped creation of a facilitating entity by coordinating skills, materials and objects, from different agencies. 
• It showed the user or client, in advance, the solution, in a representative form -a surrogate.. 

Johan Zacharias Blackstadius (1816-1898)

Once the first objective was achieved without being continuously present on the site, it was possible for the design-in-charge person to devote more time and attention for the second objective. The Interior renovator began to play a very active role of a professional interior designer, rather than being simply a site bound interior contractor.

 

The professional Interior Designer now operated from a Design office or Studio, located in an urban area. The design studio was the place for creating drawings, sketches, other presentations, models, pilots, prototypes, dummies, cartoons (replicas of artwork in full size), samples, etc. It contained samples of materials and catalogues. The studio was a fixed location facility where Interior designer was able to meet clients, suppliers and crafts-persons. 

 

The physical distancing of a studio from the site also detached the Design and Execution aspects of interior practice. In the combined practice of Design+Execution, the need for a documented scheme was not very acute, as decisions immediately turned into actions. In Exclusive Design practice, all decisions had to be formally transmitted through documented design brief as an assignment to the site-based agency.

 

Schematic documentation of design has been a very difficult aspect of business. Amateur Interior Designers (or formally untrained - hobbyists) lack the capacity to document their design intentions, so prefer to work on the site, providing oral instructions to contractors or their workers. Many Interior Designers, even today, where practicable would like to execute their work by themselves. The tradition of combining design + execution persists for many reasons: 

• The Salle des Gardes was built during the reign of Charles IX. Some traces of the original decor remain from the 1570s, including the vaulted ceiling and a frieze of military trophies attributed to Ruggiero d'Ruggieri. In the 19th century Louis Philippe turned the room into a salon and redecorated it with a new parquet floor of exotic woods echoing the design of the ceiling, and a monumental fireplace (1836), which incorporates pieces of ornament from demolished rooms from 15th and early 16th century.
  

1. Interior components require complex details and materials for their sensorial qualities. These are difficult to present through formal design documentation, and must be effected only through personal involvement.
2. Interior designing involves improvisation. The coordinated effect can be achieved, only when components or systems are substantially produced by the designers themselves. 
3. Amateur or untrained interior designers do not have such proficiency.
   

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BLOGS by Gautam Shah on DOORS --some links

Post 131 ⇒  by Gautam Shah

 

Porch at Door 9 of the Royal Albert Hall at night. wikipedia image by Author KlickingKarl

1 BEVELLED GLASS in DOORS and WINDOWS

2 DOORS – INTERIOR and EXTERIOR EXPRESSIONS

3 SLIDING DOORS

4 WIDE DOORS and MULTIPLE DOORS

5 STRUCTURES over DOORS

6 OTHER TYPES of DOORS

7 INTERIOR ILLUMINATION through DOORS

8 DOORS in LITERATURE

9 AWNINGS or SHADING DEVICES

10 NATURE OF OPENINGS

11 OPENINGS in COLONIAL PERIOD of INDIA

12 VENTILATION in TROPICAL BUILDINGS

13 DAY-LIGHTING – in Interior Spaces

14 DOOR HINGES

15 ARCHITECTONIC ELEMENTS over OPENINGS

16 DOOR HEADS

17 OPENINGS and FINISHES

18 GATES and GATEWAYS

19 CLASSES of OPENINGS

20 DOOR and HEARTH

21 TORAN

22 SIZE of a DOOR

23 DOOR SECURITY

25 EXPRESSION of OPENINGS

26 OPENINGS and BARRIER SYSTEMS

27 DOOR CASINGS

 

747-400F with the nose loading door open wikipedia image by Author Tak

 

MODES OF MEASUREMENTS in DESIGN EXECUTION

Post 130 - by Gautam Shah

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There are two major processes in design execution: Checking the quantity and quality of work. Both of these deal with vast number of items and their variants. The items’ variations persist in procedures like estimating, specification writing, rate quotations, task supervision (productivity of human and machine resources) and billing. The immediate efficiency can occur by reducing the number of items (types).

 Wikipedia image by Author Martinvl

Major job agencies like Public Works Departments, Railways, shippers etc. dictate the job market, and evolve their own 'Game Rules' for measuring and paying for the works. The rules are very practical, as have evolved through years of experience. The rules may vary in minor details from one agency to another, and one geographical region to another. Over the years, however, a common System of Taking Measurements comes into being.

SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR MODE OF MEASUREMENTS:

▪ Use of Appropriate Technology: Measurement taking must occur with the appropriate technology on hand. A steel fabrication job ideally needs to be paid by weight, but it is not possible to weigh a complex fabricated object on the site. Earthworks on contoured terrain can only be measured in terms of truckloads of soil moved or hours an excavator operates at a site. Intricately shaped and massive concrete structure cannot be measured in volume and must be paid in terms of concrete poured in. Painting work on a complex steel structure cannot be measured in surface area, so is paid per volume of paint applied. Earthworks on a small and remote location are measured in multiple lengths of the pick axe handles (approx. 750 mm), rather than using measure tapes or automatic measuring devices.

 Wikipedia image by Author: Own Work (de:Benutzer:Suricata)

▪ Commercial Value and Frequency of the item: The effort expended in measuring an item also depends on the commercial value and frequency of its occurrence. Items of low commercial value are measured in larger measure modules. An item is considered costly if its labour, material or techniques of installation are rare, or difficult to procure. An item is also costly, if it forms a large component of the total cost of the scheme. Frequently occurring items are measured thoroughly, once, and its product is used as a basis.

▪ Identity in time and Space: An item forms a distinct identity depending on the nature and time of execution. Frames for doors and windows are fitted in masonry, before the plaster work begins, the shutters are installed after the plaster and flooring work, whereas fittings-fixtures hardware, are fixed after painting and polishing work. Here the item is the same, but likely to be paid in parts at different time schedules.

▪ Multiple modes of measurements: Some items require multiple modes of measurements. A design office, supplier, manufacturing workshop, and the site supervisor, all have distinctly different ways of dealing with the same item. For example a flat-coiled spring that is used in a sofa can be readily measured in a linear measure, but real cost can only be estimated in a weight measure, (by which it is purchased). Similarly furnishing fabric may be estimated in square measures (area) but must be resolved into lengths (of woven fabric widths) for purchase. Leather may be estimated in square measure (area), but can be purchased in weight measures only. A designer tends to estimate the item in the form represented in the drawing, whereas the site-in-charge person would estimate the item in terms of its market form.

wikipedia image by Author JKBrooks85

▪ Applying same Mode of Measurement: Some work items are reclassified so that can be measured using the same mode of measurement. RCC slabs are paid in square measures (area), beams and columns paid in linear measures, and other massive works like foundations paid in cubic measures. Such multiplicity of measures can be avoided by awarding all RCC items in volumetric quantity and by separately awarding the form work and casting labour.

▪ Newer Modes of Measurements: Traditional markets do not readily accommodate the changes in tools, technology, or labour inputs that happen over a period. Yet, newer modes of measurements do come up, for example, marble flooring was once made mostly from factory cut pieces. On-site cutting was rare, as it required cutting with a chisel and manual edge-dressing (old technique). Each splitting (cutting with a chisel also required post dressing of two edges) was charged in double lengths. But with small rotary cutting machines (now commonly used) both split edges get a clean (polished) cut in a single effort. Earlier practice of charging marble floor-fixing by square measures, and splitting + edge dressing by length are not commercially valid or viable any longer. Now the marble flooring work is charged through one all-inclusive rate. Often this rate (square measure) also includes providing and laying the substrate as well as polishing the floor. And, in many instances to save the labour of billing etc. a certain percentage for skirting work (which earlier was a linear measure) is added to the floor work (square measure).

 Wikipedia image

▪ New work items: Newer work items require a very different attitude for mode of measurement. Cleaning a site (installations, furniture, furnishings) after the work is over, is a problem, for which no organized labour contractor is available. For this work no traditional mode of measurement practice exists. So a lump sum amount, or a percentage amount over the cost of painting is charged for the job of final cleaning of the site. This is a non-traditional item, but depending on the relevance, a logical solution has been achieved.

▪ Mode of measurement and billing: These two are intimately linked. When all sub items within a bill are dealt in one mode of measurement, and priced by a single or similar rates, the updating, revision or scrutiny becomes easier.

▪ Abstracting the modes of measurements: Mode of measurement of one type is generally transferable into another type (linear to square to cubic) (volume to the mass) (speed to distance and time). RCC slabs can be paid in square or cubic measure. A taxi driver may charge you on per kilometer basis, or on per day travel basis (that may include the cost of waiting). Where, for any reason, such transfers are not possible, permissible or illogical, the mode can be generalized into a neutral denominator like Monetary Value. Such abstracted modes are absolute in nature and provide a common ground for evaluation of many dissimilar entities.

▪ Usefulness of Mode of Measurement: Mode of measurement is a very critical tool for efficient use of resources. Saving (in monetary terms) of 7.5 to 12% can be achieved by efficient mode of measuring and related accounting methods. An efficient and logical measurement practice can reduce the labour and time involved in estimating and billing a job. Reduce the total number (types) of items and number of different rates for them, (by suitable accommodation of minor variations and acceptable methods of generalizations). Eliminate chances of disputes at all levels. In many instances extra items are eliminated, and where such items do appear, a clear basis for their identity is available.

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