Integration of sustainable interior design practices - Adding value to interior design services provided by suunnittelutoimisto Amerikka

Abstract

There are many challenges facing the use of sustainability rating systems for the built environment, both interior and exterior. Implementing such ratings can also be immensely rigid and quite expensive. The rigidity and cost disables their use by firms whose project scheme varies, and their implementation becomes limited by tight project budgets. With varying project types, client visions and firm goals, the task of choosing and applying a rating system, is an arduous stride.

In this thesis, I study the aforementioned rating systems, and develop a new rating process for a Finnish interior design agency, Suunnittelutoimisto Amerikka. For the sake of keeping to timely project delivery and general ease of applicability, it is crucial for the design professionals at Suunnittelutoimisto Amerikka to have a reliable source from which new guiding criteria can be obtained unanimously. Because of the profound need for familiarizing design professionals with the terrain of sustainable design, there is doubtlessly a missing link between the tools which facilitate the practice of sustainability and the designer.

As a result, this paper outlines a roadmap (production component) for the design professionals at Suunnittelutoimisto Amerikka situated in Helsinki, Finland. It will serve as a guiding force toward their sustainable business development which will prove to methodically enable employees and clients to more effectively communicate and achieve their goals within a sustainable agenda. With practice and development, Amerikka’s implementation of the roadmap will serve to eco-effectively plan, design and deliver projects.