Towards ‘regenerative interior design’: exploring a student project

Interior designers should design for regenerative systems in order to achieve
advanced sustainability, beyond the current ‘neutral’ sustainable design approach. A broader
and more positive regenerative design and development approach supports building social
and natural capital within the new ecological paradigm. The interior design discipline has
made little contribution to this agenda. This paper thus explores interior design strategies,
which relate to regenerative design strategies, through a student project proactively
implemented within the Interior Design department at the University of Derby, in an existing
3rd year module. A qualitative research design is used to analyse and code students’
proposals, using a constructivist, grounded theory approach. The results present ‘regenerative
interior design strategies’. These varying strategies are used throughout the project, of which
the most grounded tap into various social and environmental sustainability benefits. This can
inform teaching about sustainability in interior design for a new ecological paradigm.

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