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People sometimes assume that interior designers don't have any involvement with the construction process or assessing products and making sure the proper codes are followed. This is not true we do participate in the construction process, and items such as doors, both interior and exterior, and windows are selected by designers. These two products are very important to fire safety and egress. Doors can be steel or wooden doors with either a solid or hollow core. If a door is solid it may contain particle board, wood, or mineral cores. Solid core doors must be used when using fire ratings, having the solid core helps to slow down the spread of the fire. Solid core doors also provide more sound absorbency. Interior doors are usually around 1 3/8" thick and exterior doors are usually 1 3/4" thick. Doors come in so many different looks and characteristics; flush doors, 6-panel, louver, glazed, Dutch, vision etc. Like doors, windows also have different styles and features to th...

 Location is everything for a building, having good placement with aspects such as sunlight and wind. Using the natural elements to your advantage can help create a more sustainable and green building. Taking advantage of "natural ventilation, passive solar and daylighting strategies, as well as preventing air infiltration using proper insulation, and appropriate material selection, building energy use can be reduced by 50 to 80%". (Tucker page 20). The overall site in design is sectioned into three categories; regulatory, aesthetic, and environmental. Each of these components plays a vital role in the building as a whole.  The regulatory aspect of the design refers to items such as codes, zoning, and site accessibility. These can decide the size of the building on a given plot of land. The set back lines are controlled to keep the building a set distance from the street or sidewalks. It can also dictate how close your building is to the neighboring buildings. These can also ...

                There are many ideas and concepts that can be taken from nature and used to help push design forward and become smarter. Nature is something that is very complex yet, very simple in its ways. Plants only absorb as much sunlight as they need all things from plants is recycled and given back to the environment (Tucker page 11). These are prime examples of ways design can model the environment to help create a cleaner world. Some ways we can become more environmentally conscious based off these traits of nature is items like solar panels to help power homes and building and reusing or recycling products. Plastic water bottles that have been filling up in landfills can be melted down to create fibers to make polyester, implementing more practices such as this one will help to cut back on the amount of natural resources used and help preserve them for years to come.  The cradle-to-cradle system is the driving cause b...