The following instances are applicable and can be stated:

• A product or material COMPLIES with Ska Rating Criteria (or one of them if there are multiple options) or,
• A product or material MEETS the Ska Rating Criteria.

The only ‘thing’ that achieves a Ska Rating is the whole project.

In both examples the sector and version of the tools must be included as criteria are updated between versions. So if a product was compliant in Offices v1.0 and the GPM has been updated in v1.1 it could then be out of date for the later and would be missinforming audiences.

The RICS and Ska Rating Committees are in discussions with some parties who are looking to develop a product directory which will hold Ska Rating compliant products and materials. These may hold some kind of symbol for ease of identification but will never be Ska rated as this term is only applicable to the whole project.

The Feeling Good series examines how a growing body of scientific research can add value to the interiors industry, promote human wellbeing and have a positive effect on the client’s finances.

Evidence Based Design (EBD), now well accepted in healthcare architecture, analyses how a well conceived physical environment can promote wellbeing. Every party within the interiors industry has an opportunity now to implement this research and provide long term benefits for the end-users. By applying EBD to places of work, schools and homes, the industry has the chance to increase and sustain wellbeing for all.

Wellbeing is going to be the next top issue for the industry, as new data is linking its affects to productivity and health. Wellbeing in interior workspaces is directly linked to staff retention and absenteeism, a cost that companies cannot afford to overlook as staff account for 80% of companies’ costs.

Many design factors – acoustics, air quality, colour, lighting and furnishings can have a calculable impact on building occupants and ultimately the client’s bottom line. Job satisfaction, increased productivity, higher occupancy/lower absenteeism can result from applying knowledge that derives from an increasing body of research in this field. The Feeling Good series looks at all these factors and helps you to apply scientific research to your line of work.

Itinerary

8.00      Registration

8.30      Introduction by Elina Grigoriou, Grigoriou Interiors

8.40      Design for the Senses – why we should focus design on the senses

Professor Derek Clements-Croome, School of Construction Management & Engineering, Reading University

9.10      Colour in Practice – how does colour affect human behaviour and wellbeing

Designers, architects, planners, access consultants, facilities managers, building control staff, councils, managers etc. can be strategic about using colour and contrast.

Professor Hilary Dalke, Professor of Design, Kingston University, Director of Cromocon Ltd.

9.40      Coffee/Tea break and networking

10.00    Findings of BRE Trust’s project ‘Measuring the wellbeing benefits of interior material selection’

Wellbeing of occupants determined by materials used in built environments (beyond indoor air quality). This project’s objective is to bring occupants to the centre of the sustainable refit and refurbishment of buildings.

Katie Livesey, Senior Consultant – Building Technology Group, BRE

10.30    Wellbeing dividends: Why investing in employee happiness makes business sense

            Principles of achieving wellbeing and measuring the cost of absenteeism.

Jody Aked, Well-being Consultant, nef consulting
11.00    Closing Summary by Richard Francis, Gardiner & Theobald

This series will benefit:

v  Consultants wanting to obtain scientific evidence to share with clients in support of new design proposals

v  Owner/occupiers planning property improvements and looking for robust knowledge on impacts and anticipated returns

v  Suppliers/Manufacturers to increase knowledge and apply data to meet industry’s growing demand for products that cater for human wellbeing

v  Facility Managers and HR professionals looking to improve efficiency and boost morale

Registrations will take place from 8am

Seminar Fee: £60.00 + VAT   /   £25 + VAT for Students    Book here!

Follow the seminar on Twitter!  #FeelingGoodEBD

Co produced by:

and:

What attendees from the 1^st Feeling Good seminar said!

‘Having speakers and attendees from different sectors gave an interesting perspective on the subject matter rather than being from a purely interior designer’s viewpoint.’

 Noel Brewster, HSP

“The seminar was stimulating, fresh and enjoyable – not something I often say about seminars, with speakers from a wide spectrum of expertise, all highly relevant to anyone involved in interior projects. The need to address generational requirements to sound and light levels was particularly useful to me, and I really felt I had learned something new in the course of the morning.”

 Diana Yakeley, PBIID FCSD, Yakeley Associates

“I attend a lot of seminars on a range of topics and was struck by how good the Feeling Good event was.  Genuinely thought provoking, excellent expert speakers talking about a topic of real relevance.  I’m certainly not going to miss Feeling Good 2.”

David Frise, Chief Executive, Association of Interior Specialists

The introduction of Ska Rating environmental assessments for interior fit-outs has focused attention on research evidence for the wellbeing of occupants. Many design factors – colour and lighting, acoustics, air quality and furnishings can have a calculable impact on building occupants. Job satisfaction, productivity, higher occupancy/lower absenteeism can result from applying an increasing body of research in this field.

Aimed at developers, landlords, owner/occupiers, architects and interior designers there are many reasons to attend this first of two morning seminars including:

• Ska Rating is being considered as the tool to reduce the government’s office fit-out environmental impact as included in the IGT report and Wellbeing issues play an important role towards achieving a rating.
• From a consultant’s perspective, learn how Wellbeing can be achieved and obtain the evidence to share with your clients in support of your proposals.
• Owner/occupiers can more confidently start planning property improvements with additional robust knowledge on impacts and anticipated returns.
• Directors and HR professionals can understand the links the interior environment has on the retention and happiness of employees.

Contributors include:
Dr Bridget Juniper, Work and Well-Being, on Measuring Wellbeing
Prof Derek Clements-Croome, University of Reading, on Design for the Senses and Ventilation impact on performance
Dr Derrick Crump, The Institute of Environment and Health, Cranfield University, on IAQ, materials and impacts on human health
Andrew Parkin,Cundall Acoustics
Elina Grigoriou, Grigoriou Interiors (Chairing)

Attendance Fee £60.00 + VAT

Book here!

We are HUGE fans of this audacious, flamboyant and completely arrogant artist – that is ARTIST in the purest form…

Enjoy a small selection of his fashion illustrations…

PaperStone – an 100% post consumer recycled paper board for worktops. Sold in the UK even if this site is US based! http://www.paperstoneproducts.com/products-panels-slate.php its sold by Hanson plywood in the UK.

Bamboo is considered a fast growing sustainable option – would this be under timber or plant based material (as noted similarly in the signage measure) http://kitchenworktopsshop.com/the-benefits-of-bamboo-worktops/

FSC certified bamboo http://www.mosobamboosurfaces.co.uk/

The challenge we have with any recycled plastic worktop is the emission of VOCs through its lifespan and the Indoor Air Quality effects it has. We believe that this materials should be prioritised for external uses such as hoarding, benches or gardening equipment before re-used in interiors where ventilation levels and touch toxicity is likely to be a health issue.

Curface 100% recycled content http://www.smile-plastics.co.uk/curface.htm

Dapple http://www.smile-plastics.co.uk/dapple.htm

http://www.worktops.uk.com/browse/Worktops/Glass_Worktops

http://www.milestone.uk.net/eco/recycledkitchen.htm

http://www.greenhouseeffect.co.uk/index.php

Example of a solvent free binder recycled glass worktop material http://www.resilica.com/about/environment/

And an alternative to mdf… http://www.envirowall.net/products

If you ever come across a good environmentally frinedly material or product please add it as a comment below for others to see!

This is our opinion about the business of DESIGN and hopefully you are not surprised! We want to challenge and raise awareness on certain issues we come across in our business that affect our industry’s forwards and upwards development.

So what does ‘forwards & upwards’ look, feel, sound and taste like? (… a comfortable interior space with views over lush countryside, blue steak and a bottle of Barolo thank you very much!) 

What is hindering us getting there?

Throughout our careers as young Designers we looked up to our tutors, directors, fellow designers, exhibition showpieces and industry magazines to tell us what is good and right to design. Well, what if these were not wrong but not quite right either? What makes us think theirs is better anyway? It may not be human nature to everyone but to us it feels like the need to constantly question, review and improve things around us is part of our nature… So we started by admiring these glossy images of beautiful interiors, with glossy surfaces and showcased in again, glossy magazines! We then would visit some of these spaces or receive feedback from users (can’t knock word of mouth) that would bring the ‘glossiness’ down to earth. A bit like meeting your idol film star (male) in real life and realising they are shorter than you (female)… 

Designers have been guilty in creating interiors that would look great in their portfolio, and in that much yearned for publication, but forgot that this is also a lived in space or work space for people with emotions, (this includes bankers of course!). Somewhere along the lines, and that can go as far back as 100 years, Designers lost track of what really matters; we forgot that to create a ‘good interior’ we need to satisfy not only our eyes and our pocket but also our ears, the tips of our fingers, our skin, our health and our mind. Only then are we satisfying the human element as a whole.

Change needs to be driven and supported by the industry as a whole; this includes architects as well as interior designers. The industry needs to look outside its own circle and look at what society, our companies and even what our own families need to make them happy and healthy. We are not in any way assuming that if you have the perfect interior you will be happy (no sir!) – we are simply raising awareness and acknowledging the responsibility we have as Designers in holding a piece from the complicated puzzle of our life and making sure we respond.

Some recent efforts by other parties in line with our thinking:

-     Perhaps some of you came across the Silent Life of Buildings programme on channel 4 recently; overall we were very pleased to see the issues challenged in such an open way. We would encourage a more thorough approach to the tests with 3^rd party reviews.

-     Action for Happiness http://www.actionforhappiness.org/

-     LSE – Architecture for happiness events

Harwinder Bharma of Antron and our table’s lovely  host for the night announced the winner as Max Bentheim for Scarlet Hotel in the UK. The project, although it did not follow any standard industry measurements, had proved great efforts in every aspect of its delivery. The whole approach to the Interior Design proved that sustainbility had been considered in the design stage, construction and through the provisions that had been offered to the client for their operation. I was initially reserved on its merit but once I delved deeper into all the efforts the team had made and that were passionately itemised by Annabelle it became clear that they did deserve to win this great award!

This new award will demonstrate how great interior design, luxury and sustainability can coexist to outstanding results. And let’s not forget that good design is responsible design and that can only be ‘collected’ once the client is using the space and it performs as necessary and reduces its impact on the surrounding and greater world.

Ska rating was also mentioned during the awards with highlights the nomination of the npower Swindon Gold rating project and my mention as a judge of the aforementioned award. Good to get it seen and talked about in the lights!

What a great start to many more exciting years of industry development!

The great night was topped off when my co-judge Annabelle Filer was awarded the Personality of The Year Award! Very appropriately awarded and what a great surprise to the evening! Dark photo of Annabelle with award clutched in hand!

And the last thought is derived from my last conversation of the evening with Henry Pugh, Mix interiors publisher and personality populair; who on reflecting over the projects being submitted recently sees a relative lack of differentiation in design style. As I was aware of all the projects he was referring to I could not agree with him more and would like to encourage more and more designers and clients to be brave and create interiors with personality and diverse thinking. Let’s not make a mould and repeat one thing that has worked yesterday; let’s create something new and better to celebrate today and tomorrow will take care of itself.

‘Till next year…

What is not widely known perhaps is that Swarovski have expanded to furnishings, fabrics and table accessories. So very worth the money… I would be interested to know what is involved in the manufacturing process of crystal but would my initial thoughts that this is a relatively green product be correct? The light fittings mostly work with LEDs and all materials can be re-used so it remains to see how much energy is used during manufacture to establish a better profile.

Some (very unprofessional and undeserving) picks below from the visit; but better views here until I finish my project that is!!

At the 2008 Corenet UK Awards, the Ska Rating Environmental Benchmarking and Assessment Tool concept won the prestigious Sustainability Award and has subsequently been adopted by the RICS, who now provide assessor accreditation training and project certification. Following its RICS launch in November 2009, the tool is gaining increasing usage within the industry, with RWE Npower being the first Corporate occupier to have achieved a Gold rating.

The existence of Ska Rating, for the first time provides a scalable sustainability benchmarking and assessment methodology, specifically geared to the internal fit-out market and refurbishment of the commercial workplace. The seminar will provide:-

• An update on the tool since its launch together with planned future developments

• An overview of how the product works and its applicability for Corporate occupiers

• A Case Study on RWE Npower’s Auckland House, Swindon

For speakers, timings and booking information click this link CoreNet breakfast Ska event flyer

It’s the eve of another London Marathon and I’m getting all passionate again thinking of what it takes for someone to do one. It brings back all the memories of the relentless training in the dark and the wet; all the memories from the route during the actual run and the feeling of achievement I carry with me ever since. My run was on April 22, 2007 and i finished in (a very slow) 5:32:54.

There is no way training for a marathon is easy work, and I would personally say that it is 50% of the difficulty in taking such a ‘golgotha’ on! Training for the London race means you are out in the winter cold mornings, rainy evenings in the dark, muddy parks and spend a lot of hours alone.

The actual Marathon day is overall amazing and unforgettable. I have so many memories from the starting line all the way returning back home. The weather in 2007 was very hot and a stark contrast to the weather I had been training in so didn’t deal with it well at all. Apparently Haile Gebrselassie (famous pro marathon runner) quit at 19 miles due to the heat… true or not it makes me feel much better!!

Highlights were:

- Kids high fiving me in a row beside the road

- A fire engine spaying me water from across the road (ipod death but personal bliss!)

- The passion of all the supporters

- My family for being a rock(ing) support

- My little sister telling me I was a success at the end because I had achieved something I aimed for

- A couple sharing a kiss in front of me just before they crossed the finishing line

- Travelling for free on the underground by showing staff my medal (very very cool!!)

- Raised around £2500 for Oxfam!

I can’t express enough how good it feels to have this achievement under my belt and highly recommend to all of you to aim for, work hard and achieve one of your own.

I dedicated my run to my father Hippocrates Emmanuel Grigoriou who died 3 weeks before my run and I know was very proud of me doing it.

All my best wishes to the runners tomorrow and… may the force and crowds be with you!!!