Planning, Design Concepts

This involves understanding the human element of planning. To make an interior work properly there may be a number of solutions to do so. Our job at this point is to identify those solutions with the skills of the interior designer so that the interior flows for the function that it was intended for. There may be one or a number of options and our skill in planning and design concepts will help identify the problem and the solution or its alternatives. To do this we also have to have an understanding of anthropometrics and ergonomics, which is the size and limitations of the human body and how they interact with machines or in the case of the interior designer - furniture. We also use this skill in
designing joinery/cabinetry and furniture as well as being able to determine minimum comfortable
spaces for particular functions. 

For example, if you were planning a series of bedrooms, do you know the sizes of a single, single king, double queen and king size bed? Not only do you need to know these basic dimensions but also available heights, how much space is required to move around a bed, how much space is required if you bend over when making a bed. Seems simple doesn’t it until you realize that you only have so much space to work with. The very interesting thing is that once you have a good understanding of the human body (anthropometrics) then planning starts to become second nature. Of course to plan we have to be able to do this on a medium that can be stored or used to illustrate the plan to others such as a computer or a drafting table and paper. This means also that we have to have a very good understanding of scale and be able to apply this within the planning process.