Designing For Life Safety

The conversation between Randi Lynn Johnson and Robin Pasley focused on the importance of considering life safety in commercial interior design. Robin emphasized that properly licensed interior designers are responsible for addressing life safety regulations regarding elements like hallway widths, door ratings, wall materials, and more.

Transcript

Randi Lynn Johnson 00:00

Welcome to design to help your business grow. I'm your host, Randi Lynn Johnson. Each episode will bring tips and insight into how to make sure your interiors are working for you and growing your business.

00:20

In the realm of interior design for commercial spaces, there's an unseen critical component that's often overlooked life safety. Its far reaching, as it concerns the well being of those who work shop or interact in design environments. Traditionally, discussions about commercial interior design revolve more around aesthetics and functionality. But we have to start bringing life safety into the forefront of conversation of design decisions. Yes,

Robin Pasley  00:47

it's true. Life Safety is a huge piece of the spaces that we enjoy everyday, but probably don't give two seconds of thought to. And it's true that most of the time people that think about interiors, or I would say it this way, most of the time, when people think about interior design, that's not what they're thinking about. They think about the pretty things and the look and the color and the feel, but they're not thinking about the fact that real interior designers, you know, licensed designers have to understand life safety was part of what we are educated on. And if we are licensed is what we took a board exam for us to make sure that we knew how to design spaces that are safe for those who use them. Yeah, we

spend a lot of time in commercial spaces, whether it's corporate headquarters, or retail spaces, healthcare environments, almost all of it, and we have to make sure that it's carefully structured, right, that everyone is safe, especially if this is all about emergencies. Right. So if there's a fire, how do we get out? And which way did the doors swing and, you know, everything from we work with MEP engineers, and they have their own set of standards that they work inside of for meeting these requirements. But for us, it's about, you know, making sure those spaces that we're putting the right things in those spaces.

Randi Lynn Johnson 02:08

Can you tell me what MEP is MEP

Robin Pasley  02:09

stands for mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineers. So those guys have their own piece of the puzzle. Architects have a huge piece of the puzzle. And then designers because we're often designing the interiors of spaces where an architect may not be needed or isn't called on, yeah, to speak into that, that has everything to do from, you know, the width of a hallway, if it's a dead end corridor, what the walls are made of what the doors are made of their fire rating, there's just a laundry list of that kind of information that we have to know and bring to the table when we're designing a space in order for it to comply.

Randi Lynn Johnson 02:49

Yeah. So smart. It's so much more, I'm really glad we're having these conversations. Because, for me, who is not a designer, you know, I think like interior design, like your work looks so pretty, like I'm, you know, looking at the aesthetic, but I recognize the more that I work here and talk with you that it is so much more involved.

Robin Pasley  03:09

I think something is, you know, I think there's so many misnomers associated with interior design. Now, if you've heard the terminology, interior architect, our industry's having to find new ways to label what we do. Because God bless them HGTV has done such a great job of putting on shows. And so many people are called interior designers who don't have any licensing have not even had had education in interior design. Therefore, they have no knowledge of life safety and wouldn't be able to, you know, really inform that part of the project. But they get to label themselves that and that's why you see things now coming on like interior architect because they're trying to find some delineation from who has been licensed to understand this and who is just really good at putting pretty things together. And you know, for someone who got the education took the board exams. I like you know, people knowing the difference between the two. worked hard for that.

Randi Lynn Johnson 04:09

Can you tell me and the rest of listeners what NCIDQ stands for?

Robin Pasley  04:15

sorry. Yes, that's it. I forget. I use letters all the time. That means something to me and not anything anyone else. The national certification for interior design qualifications, okay, so it's the fancy letters that go after our names when we've taken that test and it is too many of them. My husband used to think it was the North Carolina international Dairy Queen.

Randi Lynn Johnson 04:39

Maybe it is in some places, maybe it is great.

04:52

In an increasingly competitive market, the merits of using interior design as a strategic growth tool can make all all the difference in not just surviving but thriving Pasley

Robin Pasley  05:02

Commercial Interiors designed to help your business grow