There's a free symposium on interior design's history and future on March 24th at University of Kentucky School of Interior Design that I would like to attend, but can't. Speakers include Prataap Patrose on socially responsible design, Robin Guenther on hospital design and Cindy Coleman on workplace design.

Experts from a variety of disciplines will discuss how interior design has evolved as a result of increasingly complex modern buildings. The design of structures is now a multidisciplinary process in which architects, interior designers, landscape architects, engineers and other consultants work together to achieve successful solutions to meet a client's needs. As a part of this team, interior designers provide professional expertise in the most effective use of spaces and in how to create interior environments that provide for the well-being of their occupants.

The core of the work in the modern practice of interior design focuses on schools, offices, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, airport terminals and retail stores. In all of these building types, the core objective of professional interior designers is to create environments that support and sustain human beings psychologically, physically and emotionally.

[...]

Forty years ago, it was not unusual for an architectural firm to handle limited interior design services, or the architects would contract with outside interior design consultants. As building construction expanded in the 1980s and '90s, these architectural firms began to add interior design professionals to their staffs. The number of interior design firms specializing in commercial work also began to grow rapidly.

There also has been expansion in the number of multidisciplinary design firms that began to offer interior design as a unique and distinctive service apart from architectural and engineering work. The interior design expertise offered by these firms brings a sustained emphasis on the physical, psychological and emotional needs of the client while emphasizing how these priorities can support the client's goals and objectives.

I will try to get a transcript of the symposium after the event.