Interior Design Professor spearheads ‘Healthy Interior Designs’ symposium

Between discussions of crowding, indoor transmissions and a post-pandemic future, Interior Design Professor and Graduate Program Director Lois Weinthal spearheaded the Healthy Interior Design (external link)  symposium: a three-day conference that had both online and in-person components for participants to engage with. The symposium, titled Designing healthy interiors with lessons learned from a pandemic, hosted participants from across the globe as they bridged science and interior design for a discourse on shaping healthy interiors.

Weinthal’s research and practice investigate the relationship between architecture, interiors, clothing and objects, resulting in works that take on an experimental nature. Her teaching explores these topics where theoretical discussions in seminars are put into practice in the design studio. As a result of post-pandemic discussions surrounding the industry, Weinthal organized the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connections Grant event in October.

“The idea for the symposium emerged early in the pandemic as knowledge about viral transmission came to the foreground. Pathways for transmission were higher on the interior, and as guidelines and protocols were developed by health agencies, the interior was the site where all these mandates converged,” explained Weinthal. “The information being produced kept circling back to interiors, so it seemed that interiors should be part of the discussion. This led to the theme of how to create a dialogue around the theme of healthy interiors.” 

Temporary solutions sprang up in interiors, but solutions that are robust and seasonal while simultaneously enhancing spaces for function and usability are needed. The two-day online symposium and one-day in-person workshop brought together 12 presenters and six moderators representing interior designers, scientists, engineers, epidemiologists, visualization designers, and public health experts whose work investigates infectious disease transmission made more imminent when confined indoors. 

Session topics informed designers and anyone with an interest in shaping healthy interiors to understand how infectious respiratory particles are transmitted from the body, how far particles travel, pathways into respiratory systems, infectious surfaces known as fomites, how to protect the individual and community, and what steps can be taken to mitigate transmission.  

Lessons learned from a pandemic

Interior spaces gained attention during the pandemic as waves of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders responded to the increase of infection rates across the globe, explained Weinthal. The protocols implemented during the pandemic were reactionary, but there is a need to understand how interiors can be reshaped to proactively prepare for yearly viruses and new health risks. 

“The symposium revealed how scientists and engineers work with particles that are invisible to the eye, whereas the work of interior designers responds to the interior envelope. It was exciting to see how these disciplines of different scales could come together and find overlaps with the goal of shaping healthier interiors,” said Weinthal. “This was also evident by the different organizations that came together to support the event that included the Interior Designers of Canada and the Institute for Pandemics at the University of Toronto.” 

With lessons learned from the pandemic, this event shared knowledge to develop design strategies to create healthy interiors. Interior designers give shape to a multitude of occupancy types such as education, healthcare, housing, workspaces, commercial, and recreational, playing a critical role in imagining how interiors can be designed to mitigate the spread of viruses.

“Research on viral transmission already has a long history, but it took a pandemic to broaden this knowledge further into the public realm,” said Weinthal. “Several key themes emerged from the symposium including the importance of cleaning air, targeted rather than broad cleaning and disinfection measures, and the critical role of clear plain language and graphical information.  Interdisciplinary solutions are essential to reimagining the interior environment to be responsive to viral and other indoor risks.”

Information about how to access the symposium recordings will be shared in a few weeks on the Healthy Interior Design (external link)  website. In addition, the team will be working on a set of guidelines for interior designers over the next few months, which will be posted on the website when complete.

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