Amateurs, give way

IIID, an association of interior designers, hopes to usher in greater professionalism in the field of interior design, reports Sanjay Kr Singh

Did you know that the turnover of the interior design industry is three times greater than that of the building industry? That's because while the average cost of construction of a building varies from Rs 500 to 1,000 per sq feet, the expenditure on interior design tends to be three times that amount.

Yet, the interior design industry faces a dilemma. There are no benchmarks for who qualifies to practise as an interior designer and who doesn't (as is the case in most professions like medicine, CA, law, etc). Hence, amateurism thrives.

In popular perception, there is little to distinguish a bonafide interior designer from a contractor or an interior decorator. A contractor is one who executes the work. An interior decorator usually picks up designs from magazines and tries to implement them. An interior designer, on the other hand, is a professional who has studied design, understands it, and gets into the details of design. She pays a lot of attention to the aesthetic value of various elements. She possesses the right technical knowledge for implementing her design ideas. And she knows a great deal about the different products and materials available in the market.

Today everyone-carpenters, interior decorators, even housewives who have picked up a smattering of knowledge-poses as an interior designer. Hence, said Hemant Sud of GK II based Dimension Designers, you need an apex body across the country that will regulate who qualifies to be called an interior designer. The Indian Institute of Interior Designers. (IIID), a nationwide association, aims to set up standards in this regard.

IIID has laid down well-defined criteria for who qualifies to be called an interior designer. You need to have a four-year degree, or a two-year diploma in interior design or architecture followed by one year of experience. But at present there aren't too many Institutes offering degrees and diplomas in interior design. So if someone has done a two year diploma from an unrecognized institute and has three years of work experience, than she too qualifies for IIID membership.

Fifteen Years ago no degree course in interior design existed. So there are a lot of interior design professionals who have no formal degree but have ten years or more of experience in the field. Such people too qualify for IIID's membership. IIID's screening committee asks for photographs and details of the projects done by such people. If they pass muster, then they become members of IIID.

If you don't qualify under any of these categories, then IIID will make you an affiliate member. Over a period of time you can take courses and upgrade yourself to associate membership.

Today several four-year degree courses for architecture exist. But till two years ago you had no four-year degree courses for interior design in the country. IIID has started the four-year degree course at Mumbai, Surat, Bangalore and Pune.

IIID got the leading interior designers and academicians of the country to design a syllabus. It is now giving this syllabus to all the institutes running courses on interior design. This will ensure that there is uniformity in education throughout the country.

Today architecture is a four-year, eight semester course. Out of these eight semesters, you have one paper each on interior design in two semesters. Thus, only two papers out of 40 are on interior design, which is coming an interior designer.

A lot of architects today write on their cards “Architects and interior designer”. Interior design offers a lot of scope to beginners to find work and make some money. A young Architect may not be able to find architecture work initially, but will get interior work. So they do interior design work for survival while trying to make a mark in their main line of work, i.e., architecture.

But a lot of people do interior design work only and they do not touch architecture related work. Many aspiring architect, realizing that they have the required aesthetic sensibility, switch and become full-time interior designers. Thus, there's a lot of overlap between the two professions.

IIID aims to promote interior design as a profession, so that it is seen as an attractive profession in its own right, rather than being regarded as an adjunct of architecture.

IIID is now affiliated to international Federation of interior Designers (IFI). The National President of IIID, Srikant Navsarkar, is at present board member and Treasurer of IFI.

Every two years a congress of IFI is held. 500 designers from across the world attended this congress called ‘Design Sutra' held last year between Dec 3 to 6 at Mumbai. With These initiatives, one hopes that aspiring interior designers will receive high quality education, and amateurs will give way to well-trained professionals.