PORTFOLIO

Material choice in every design practise is really important, for aesthetic reasons and also sustainability issues. This is even more crucial in the field of interior design as it produces a lot of waste as many commercial interior spaces are changed every few years and require a lot of different materials to create the style of a brand. With so many materials now on offer I don’t think there’s much reason to not use sustainable materials especially with natural resources becoming limited and the health risks also involved with poor material choice. There are a lot of incentives for interior designers to use sustainable and environmentally responsible materials in their designs and it is something I’m keen to research into more for my projects and future work. Starting with my design for my Future Life project I aim to be more responsible with my material choices.

The brief for this project was to redevelop the taxi rank at Preston bus station to become a site to make and create things. My design proposal is for an up-cycling and art centre based around the re-use of materials and finding new purposes. This leads very well onto my choice of materials for the structure being recycled.

The floor is staying the same as it’s in good condition and it would mean digging up tarmac and concrete and laying down new floor materials. However, I did consider the flooring I could have used if I wanted to resurface the floor and recycled rubber was looking to be a good option. Recycled rubber is often made from old rubber tyres or other rubber products and is quite long lasting, other than recycled rubber, recycled wood flooring would be the way to go as it is often thrown away or burned before its fully worn down or broken so can still be used. I am going to keep the flooring already on site though to save the process of removing the current flooring and laying new materials.

For the structure on site itself, I plan on using a few different materials, depending on what is available at the time but it will be materials that are being thrown away or from a reclamation yard. Mainly made of wood but also metal sheets it will look like its made from recycled materials and not coherent as the title of my design is ‘Look Beyond What You See’ so I don’t want it to look new and pristine. The materials I am using will have marks from previous uses and owners and will also be able to be painted so can be changed and altered, rather than changing the covering every other year. There are tiles on part of the site already and I potentially might change these tiles and any that don’t break when being removed can be re-used on the wall with other recycled tiles and the rest can be crushed and made into new tiles for the wall, this will make it look more interesting, but not by buying new tiles or covering it in paint or plaster. If I was to plaster or render the wall I could use lime plaster/render which is more sustainable and environmentally friendly and paint it with water based paints. It is a long process though as it needs a few coats of the render and the condition of the wall has to be perfect so it might be a lot of hassle when other materials could be used. I  do prefer the tiles as they will last a long time and even if they start to look a bit worn then they won’t look out of place in the design. It would also mean the waste from the previous covering could be re-used either on the site or as part of the up-cycling process for the users of the final site.

This project lends itself well to sustainable and environmentally responsible materials, in particular recycled materials so I’m hoping to explore more options with my honours project. I might change the materials for this project when I arrive at my final design but I am happy so far with my choices.