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This paper aims to build on the presumption that defining the spatial solution of the activity-based office environment through user-centred interdisciplinary dialog would strengthen understanding of interdependencies between the environment and the worker. Secondly, this presumption also contributes to the idea that the shared and clarified concepts of a spatial solution through location-specific structuring, would support the research outcomes in being communicated to the design practice, and further improve the work environment design in the future. Thirdly, this supposition is that understanding, documenting and communicating of the interdependencies between the environment and the worker would contribute to increased interdisciplinary understanding, ultimately benefitting the end-user, the worker.

The driver of this conceptual paper is to encourage understanding across disciplinary boundaries and communication of work environment research results for implementation in design practice. The authors introduce an ecosystem-based approach to discuss the spatial solutions of activity-based office work environments. This approach is motivated by a need to understand the contradictory findings in former knowledge work environment research, such as ambiguities with shared concepts concerning interdisciplinary spatial discourse and shortcomings with user-centred methodologies in architectural design research. The transdisciplinarity forms the methodological framework of this paper, and it is reflected in relation to the design research approach Research by Design (RbD). RbD considers the professional designer’s viewpoint, which includes creative knowledge production, carrying out the operations of research in a real-life context with interdisciplinary interactions together with the worker’s user-experience.

The research outcome is the proposal of an activity-based office ecosystem-based approach, in which the physical environment is structured into two entities: architectural envelope and interior orchestration. In this twofold approach, both qualitative and quantitative contents are meant to be seen as part of the time-location-based framework of an office space. This integrative approach is intended to support the process of searching for understanding and unity of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. The twofold structuring also has an essential role in supporting methodological choices and the communication of the research outcomes both between disciplines and to design practice. The twofold model also has a role in engaging users as participants and evidence providers in the design or research processes.

The location-specific ecosystem-based approach of the physical work environment compiles of a twofold entity architectural envelope and interior orchestration. This approach supports affordance-based thinking, understanding the ecosystem’s complexity and underpins spatial documentation. Furthermore, this location-specific ecosystem-based approach enables communication of the research outcomes to the design practice and participation actions with the users.

The success of the efforts for green building depends largely on integrating such approaches with building design education. However, most of the existing studies on green building have focused on the technical issues, while its socio-cultural and educational aspects have been less examined. In order to alleviate the problem, this paper presents an international workshop that explores how green building design can be taught in a global teamwork project using a green building assessment system, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) checklist as a framework and examples of vernacular architecture as precedents. The results of an empirical survey reveals a gap between students' general learning about green building in a developing and a developed country and suggests that a collaborative project experience may facilitate bridging the gap and exchanging technical and cultural information related to sustainability.

Bedroom Feng Shui practices have been criticized as myth over the years but in fact having its scientific origin that is not purely superstitious. This paper aims to examine whether the architects' design practice for bedroom interior arrangement is concurring with the recommended bedroom Feng Shui practices. The study has successfully interviewed 16 architects from diverse backgrounds to avoid bias, seeking their design perspectives in bedroom interior configuration. Subsequently, the interviewees submitted sketches of ideal bedroom layout based on their expertise, with pre-set requirements. Data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using mixed method approach. In agreement with our expectations, majority of the interviewees have matching thoughts that “bed arrangement” is the primary consideration in bedroom interior configuration. Most of the design outputs were highly attached to favorable Feng Shui conditions. The overall findings implied that bedroom Feng Shui is not merely superstitious but most components are practical design references for architects from diverse backgrounds.

To achieve the most intuitive display of interior design effect, the concept, characteristics, expression mode, application scope and basic types of virtual reality display design are expounded from the perspective of three dimension (3d) virtual reality technology, and the advantages and disadvantages of 3d modeling speed and panoramic visualization display are analyzed. The results show that through this research and practice, a series of 3d production techniques for interior design space, such as mapping technology, lighting technology, modeling technology, etc., are summarized. These technologies can effectively make use of ordinary computer to make and operate virtual reality and makes an exploratory attempt for the promotion of 3d technology in interior design industry in the future. In this study, it provides a design fulcrum for the development of indoor furniture display under the new economic conditions, which is of great practical significance for the healthy and sustainable development of interior design industry.

Interior design is a process which collaborates different approaches, strategies, methodologies and practices. This study is a social responsibility project which had been conducted under the supervision of the author and the authorities of The Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV). The purpose of this project is to investigate how effective the integration of knowledge-based sessions and research-project development phases, while trying to increase students’ motivation. The project had been rejenerated twice, in 2014 and 2015 spring terms, during which the visual research method was photographing, computer modelling, interviews with authorities and children. In regard to the mission of the foundation, twenty-eight interior design students (in 2014 spring term) and seventeen students (in 2015 spring term) developed concept sheets, prepared design proposals, presented and submitted them to the authorities. This paper is a brief discussion and evaluation on the design process which may help to provide a base for similar social responsibility projects. Design proposals in the study may also help to identify new research questions such as whether/how changes in social, physical and cognitive concerns may influence the psychological reactions to educational activity centers and how such impacts may help enhance the affective quality in designs where necessary. In the project, each project team was asked to develop a concept map and to identify the most important words. It was recorded that all groups used “children” as the main keyword in their concept maps. Hence, the most frequently referred terms in the concept maps were grouped, analysed and interpreted, which can also be defined as the “concept map” of the project. Another concrete outcome of the study was the encouragement of students, they got involved in the design process equally. They were honoured by “TEGV social responsibility certificates” which supported their awareness and motivation to the design process as well.

Currently many real estate developers offer their products through their websites. The aim of this medium is not only to facilitate understanding of the building, but also to capture the attention of potential customers, provoking feelings and emotions that influence the purchase decision, especially in the case of off-plan property sales. Understanding the cognitive factors behind customers' evaluation processes prior to a purchase is of great interest for defining successful design criteria.

The interior space of the property is one of the most important aspect in users' purchase decisions.

The paper aims to determine which property design elements in floor plans provoke the emotions users use to describe its interior design.

A field study was carried out on a sample of 75 individuals who evaluated a set of images of real estate promotions.

The results show that the landings and corridors are fundamental; the area must be spacious so that larger surface areas score best; the living room must be well differentiated from the bedrooms; the valuation of the space depends on the graphic form of presentation, the use of warm colours and the degree of detail in the plans has a positive influence on the assessment.

This information may be of great interest for architects and designers in the graphic representation of the space.

While interior public space can be one of the most important criteria in designing high-rise residential buildings in urban environments in practitioners’ opinion, this study aims at investigating the importance of this criterion from consumers’ lifestyle standpoint. In particular, this study aims to examine the effects of different lifestyle orientations on consumers’ preference for this housing feature. Three relevant lifestyles are investigated including independence, family-orientation and homebody.

Survey data were collected from 331 owners of high-rise apartments in three residential buildings in urban areas.

The research results revealed significant and positive effects of independence and homebody lifestyle orientations on consumers’ preference for interior public spaces. Interestingly, a family-oriented lifestyle was found to negatively moderate the effect of a homebody lifestyle on the preference, providing evidence for possible exclusive impacts of different lifestyle orientations on the preference.

This study emphasizes the exclusive impacts of different lifestyles on consumers’ preference for housing features that need to be considered by developers and marketers when designing consumer positions and marketing strategies.

The essence of the ornament phenomenon is a cultural one and a symbol of civilization progress. As for fashion and home textiles, automobile interior textiles play an important part in reflecting the styles of vehicles, the different cultures and personalities of the owners, and finally influence the sales volume of vehicles. With the development of the world economy and the improvement of life, people pay more attention to the color and pattern design of a car's interior decoration. This paper deals with the principles of color design for industrial textiles with automobile interior textiles as an example, and particularly deals with the color scheme for a combination of colors in the automobile interior textiles design. In terms of color design, automobile interior textiles with the aesthetic and technical design will be the preferred products in future, indicating that both aesthetic and pragmatic needs should be considered in the industrial textile design.

This study aims to explore ways of developing, implementing and validating a new framework and criteria for self-evaluation of programme curricula, with specific reference to the quality assurance certification process in a particular case.

The framework is developed using a case study research methodology and implemented based on criteria extraction through the triangulation of indicators achieved from internal goals and external directives.

The findings reveal that this is an improvement-led framework that can be adapted to other contexts during the quality assurance processes to facilitate periodical programme evaluations with a focus on the curriculum.

The proposed practical tool is developed for the programme evaluation process with a curricular focus during the quality assurance certification process of an interior architectural programme while enlightening the processes for the periodical self-evaluations of other institutions. The framework depends on both institution-specific internal and external directives and fulfilling curriculum-related criteria of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance.

Within quality assurance processes, despite external quality assurance mechanisms, there is a shortage of self-evaluation tools for internal quality assurance procedures, which allow the dissociation of programme-specific qualities. The proposed framework is developed as an example of a self-tailored internal quality assurance tool and process for educational institutions to reveal their unique qualities.

This study aims to determine the effects of wall covering materials (wood, concrete and metal) used indoors on participants’ perceptual evaluations. The differences among participants’ perceptual evaluations regarding indoor physical environmental factors by occupation and gender were examined.

Cafes were selected as research environments. Virtual experimental spaces using three different wall covering materials were modelled and participants’ assessment of the physical environmental factors of these virtual spaces was measured through a detailed questionnaire.

Cafes using light-coloured wall covering materials were perceived more favourably than cafes using dark-coloured wall covering materials, and cafes with light-coloured wooden wall coverings were considered as a warmer material than cafes using concrete and metal. Participants who received design education (architect, interior architect) perceived physical environmental factors of cafes more negatively than those who did not receive design education (lawyer, economist, accountant, etc.). Male participants evaluated the physical environmental factors of cafes more positively than female participants for all adjective pairs. Except for two adjective pairs, no significant difference was found among the evaluations according to genders for the other adjective pairs.

This study revealed new results about customers’ choices of wall covering materials and offered designers new alternatives for materials that can be used in the design of cafes.