Designing Spaces for Everyone

My Design Philosophy

I have always been a strong believer in welcoming environments and inclusive spaces. Being in a space, one should feel welcomed and comfortable; for this feeling to occur, the designer needs to create the space with the user in mind. There were several aspects of my life that fed into this dream. The experiences that I had as a child with my mother while watching t.v. are what initiated my feelings towards design. Everyone should have a space like this, that is, a space that they can go to feel welcomed and comfortable. People should have a space where they can go to be themselves in purest way possible. A have a few goals in regards to design that I'd like to work towards. I'd have to say that my biggest goal would involve removing the idea of gender from spaces.

Source

Growing up, I was constantly watching HGTV and DIY in the living room with my mom. I would watch as the designers and contractors would work with their colleagues and clients to produce a space that was fit for those clients; I always wanted to be one of those clients so that I could have a space that I could feel completely comfortable in and feel proud to say that it was mine. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to appear on a television show on either channel; however, I continued to dream of one day designing spaces for people the way that I saw it happen on the "big" screen.

Photo taken by me

Something that I have always felt strongly for is inclusiveness, and one way that everyone can feel included is through the environment that surrounds them. That's not to say that every environment should make every person feel included, because that is nearly if not completely impossible to accomplish. That is the reason that I'd like to work towards creating spaces where as many people as possible can feel included and comfortable. Working to create spaces that can house many personalities is one way to accomplish this, but I would rather strive towards creating spaces for each individual person. I'd create spaces that represents each person in all aspects; I want my client's best friends to be able to guess which room belongs to him or her. 

Sketch by me

In my lifetime, I would like to see design shed the idea of gender specific environments. I can almost guarantee that a space is not assigned a gender when it is made, so spaces should not be made to fit a certain gender. This goal expands farther than design, but design is a place that I could see this change happening a lot sooner than later. A space should represent a person and not a gender; if a person enjoys a certain style, their room should reflect that with no concern for gender and judgment due to the fact that the right gender isn't represented.

Design is for everyone. Each person should feel like their space is a mirror image of themselves. In my career as a designer, I'd like to ensure that this is the case. I will strive to make sure that each space that I design will represent a personality. I have the experiences that I had as a child to thank for these goals and my viewpoints on design and inclusiveness. Because of these experiences, I will be able to design everyone.