Ohio University Interior Architecture Program HCIA 351, Materials and Construction II Matthew Ziff,

1
Ohio UniversityInterior Architecture
ProgramHCIA 351, Materials and Construction
IIMatthew Ziff, Associate Professor
2
Commercial Interiors Projects

• In design practice there is a substantial
  distinction between residential design and
  commercial design.
• Commercial design typically involves complicated
  physical, financial, and legal relationships.
• The base building (architectural shell) is today
  often quite separate from the interior infill.
  Partition systems, office work stations that are
  demountable, open work space all make interior
  environments independent from the enclosing
  building envelope

3
Interior Design PracticeThe following
information is taken from the Whole Building
Design Guide web pagehttp//www.wbdg.org/design/d
d_interiordsgn.php

• Interior design concerns itself with more than
  just the visual or ambient enhancement of an
  interior space it seeks to optimize and
  harmonize the uses to which the built environment
  will be put.
• Thus, in the words of the U.S. Bureau of Labor
  Statistics, it is "practical, aesthetic, and
  conducive to intended purposes, such as raising
  productivity, selling merchandise, or improving
  life style." Interior design is a practice that
  responds to changes in the economy, organization,
  technology, demographics, and business goals of
  an organization.

4

• As a human activity, interior design is centuries
  old.
• As a coherent profession identified by the label
  "interior designer," it is relatively recent.
• Many experts trace its beginnings to the early
  20th century and the rise of interior decoration
  as a career separate from architecture. In the
  early decades, this practice focused largely on
  the residential arena.
• By the 1940s, the terms "interior design" and
  "interior designer" were used primarily by those
  individuals providing services to a small but
  growing number of business clients.

5

• After World War II, nonresidential
  designoffices, hotels, retail establishments,
  and schoolsgrew in importance as the country
  rebounded economically. Interior design is
  generally divided into two categories,
  residential and contract or commercial.
• Today, interior design is becoming increasingly
  specialized as buildings and materials get more
  complex technologically and regulations and
  standards more demanding.

6

• The first national professional organization for
  interior designers, The American Institute of
  Interior Decorators (later, the American
  Institute of Interior Designers), was founded in
  1931, and a second, the National Society of
  Interior Designers, in 1957.

7

• But it was not until the 1960s and 70s that
  independent organizations were established to
  assess qualifications for designers and design
  programs, thereby putting in place the
  cornerstones of the profession standards for
  education, experience, and examination.
• These are the Interior Design Educators Council,
  the Council for Interior Design Accreditation,
  and the National Council for Interior Design
  Qualification. In 1975, AID and NSID merged to
  form the American Society of Interior Designers.
  The International Interior Design Association was
  founded in 1994

8

• Efforts to bring about statutory licensing of
  interior designers, variously through title or
  practice acts, also began in the 1960s.
• In 1982, Alabama became the first state to enact
  legislation for the regulation of interior
  design.
• Today, 25 states and jurisdictions have adopted
  some form of regulation for interior design.

9

• Interior design includes a scope of services
  performed by a professional design practitioner,
  qualified by means of education, experience and
  examination, to protect and enhance the life,
  health, safety, and welfare of the public.

10
William LeBaron Jenney Home Insurance Building
1883-1885 Chicago, Illinois
The development of high rise construction, and
especially the steel frame, really made
commercial interior space possible. William
LeBaron Jenney's Home Insurance Building of 1883
was an early example of the potential of large
scale open commercial space
11
The Rookery, Chicago, IL  (1886), John Wellborn
Root
12
The Rookery, Chicago, IL  (1886), John Wellborn
Root
13
Frank Lloyd Wright Johnson Wax building,
Racine, Wisconsin, 1947 The Great Work Room
14
(No Transcript)
15
Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1936 for the
SC Johnson Wax Administration Building (Racine,
WI)
16
Companies that support designers and their work

• Herman Miller
• Knoll
• Steelcase

17
In 1942 Herman Miller introduced its first
furniture product for the modern office, a
component system called the Executive Office
Group, designed by Gilbert Rohde.
18
Gilbert Rohde furniture designer   It was
1930, and Gilbert Rohde had a problem He was
full of fresh new ideas about furniture design
but he couldn't convince any of the traditional
manufacturers to take them on. Then he met D. J.
DePree. DePree also had a problem His company,
Herman Miller, needed a major shot in the arm if
it was going to survive. Rohde told DePree that
his new ideas made sense for the changing times
and for the growing number of people who were
living in apartments and smaller houses. "This
calls for a different kind of furniture," he
said.
19
Could Rohde design such furniture, DePree asked?
Yes. Would he design such furniture for Herman
Miller? Yes. A deal was struck, and thus began
a relationship that would lead Herman Miller into
an exciting and challenging new era. "You're not
making furniture anymore," Rohde told DePree.
"You're providing a way of life."

20

• Disdaining ornamentation that often covered up
  shoddy workmanship, Rohde espoused clean, simple,
  honest designs. To accommodate smaller living
  spaces, he created furniture with dual purposes
  a card table that turned into a dining table, a
  settee that folded back into a bed, tables
  ("rotorettes") that housed books and other items
  on rotating shelves.

21

• He loved this idea of interchangeability,
  demonstrated most notably in his Living-Dining
  Group--individual pieces that could go in either
  place and a radical departure from the standard
  living or dining room "suites" purchased at the
  time.
• And with the introduction of Rohde's Executive
  Office Group, the company entered the office
  furniture market.

22
Charles and Ray (his wife) Eames.Great American
designers.
23
Molded plywood chairs designed by Charles and Ray
Eames, manufactured by Herman Miller
Molded plywood screen designed by Charles and Ray
Eames, manufactured by Herman Miller
24
Cast aluminum and leather chairs, designed by
Charles and Ray Eames, manufactured by Herman
Miller.
25
The Eames lounge chair, manufactured by Herman
Miller
Model 670 was the first design for the luxury end
of the market by Charles and Ray Eames. Designed
in 1956 it retailed for 634 in 1957. The Lounge
chair is unashamedly masculine, exuding a sense
of executive power and comfort through its
generous proportions and use of high-quality
materials. At first glance, the chair looks much
more complex than other pieces by Eames, but it
is actually built according to the same principle
as their simple plywood chairs. Three moulded
plywood elements joined together by metal
components and, with a lower frame, form the
basic structure.
26
The Merchandise Mart, completed in 1931, catered
exclusively to the wholesale trade. The largest
building in the world at the time of its
completion, the Mart continues to host the NEOCON
trade show annually.
27
NeoCon Worlds Trade Fair, North Americas
largest conference and exhibition for interior
design at The Merchandise Mart Chicago, features
the latest trends, products and concepts in
office, residential, hospitality, health care,
institutional and government environments, all
under one roof at Chicagos famous Merchandise
Mart.
28
Open plan office furniture, or systems furniture
as it is called today, defines and separates work
spaces without the use of constructed partitions.
Today it is estimated that more than 30 of U.S.
businesses use systems Furniture. The practice
of commercial interior design today is a
specialty, requiring knowledge, skill, and an
ability to bring large and small scale
architectural components together into a smoothly
functioning environment.
29
Open Office Plan

• Open plan offices have existed for a long time.
  However, prior to the 1950s, these mostly
  consisted of large regular rows of desks or
  benches where clerks, typisst, or technicians
  performed repetitive tasks. Such designs were
  rooted in the work of industrial engineers or
  efficiency experts such as Frederick Winslow
  Winslow Taylor, and Henry Ford. In the 1950s, a
  German team named Quickborner developed office
  landscape office which used conventional
  furniture, curved screens, large potted plants,
  and organic geometry to create work groups on
  large, open floors. Office landscape was quickly
  supplanted by office furniture companies which
  developed cubicles based on panel-hung or systems
  furniture. Many different terms (mostly derisive)
  have been used over time for offices using the
  old-style, large arrays of open cubicles
  including sea of cubicles and cube farm.
  Frank Lloyd Wright was the first architect to use
  the 'open plan' design in houses. (Wikipedia)

30
Open Plan Office Furniture
31
With the decline in new construction and the
dwindling availability of prime urban real
estate, tenant work will continue to be a
primary focus for many design practices.
32
Base Building and Tenant Improvements The
commercial office building shell and core, which
include essential services, such as the HVAC
system, elevators, and toilet rooms, is commonly
referred to as the 'base building'. Tenant
improvements are those materials and
constructions that form the infill, responding to
the tenant's needs, which are not part of the
base building. The base building standard, or
building standard, is a package of typical
tenant improvements provided by, and sometimes
required of, the landlord. By standardizing
building components like suite entry doors, suite
signage, lighting fixtures, and window
treatments, the landlord can maintain coherence
in design, and consistency in maintenance
routines throughout the building. Usually there
is a tenant improvement allowance to cover
standard items that will be installed at no cost
to the tenant. The quantity of tenant
improvements is usually described per square foot
of rentable space.
33
For example, 1 telephone jack every 125 square
feet of leased space, 1 door every 300 square
feet of leased space, et cetera. Sometimes the
allowance is stated as a certain amount of money
to be allocated per square foot of leased space.
A lease is an agreement between the property
owner and the tenant. There are standard
improvements that landlords provide to tenants
as part of the rental rate. The document that
describes these improvements to the rented space
is the work letter (see page 7 in "Specifying
Interiors") which is attached to, and becomes
part of the lease.
34
Measuring Commercial Space There are about a
dozen different methods of measuring
commercial office space in current use. All
methods make similar distinctions between gross
area, usable area, and rentable area, but they
differ in how these areas are calculated. The
building gross area, defined as the "construction
area" by the Building Owners and Managers
Association (BOMA), is the floor area within the
exterior face of the building including the
thickness of the exterior wall. It is the
total constructed space. This measurement is
used in evaluating building efficiency, and in
comparing construction costs between projects.
35

• The rentable area is usually defined as the
  interior floor area excluding
• vertical penetrations (stairs, duct chases,
  elevator shafts, et cetera).
• This measurement is often used to determine the
  income producing
• capability of a building.
• The usable area is the floor area that is
  inhabitable by the tenant.
• This measurement is used in planning and
  designing the space.