Get Guardian on GoogleThe Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN) has called on business leaders, developers and policymakers to treat interior design as a critical investment in workplace productivity, employee wellbeing and organisational performance, rather than as a finishing touch to building projects.
The association said the design of offices and other indoor spaces could influence how effectively people work, stressing that decisions on lighting, ventilation, acoustics, safety and space planning should be considered from the beginning of a project.
IDAN President, Jacqueline Aki, gave the charge at a press conference, ahead of its National Interior Design Summit (NIDS), under the theme, ‘Interiors as Infrastructure’.
Citing research by the World Green Building Council, Aki indicated that better indoor air quality can improve office productivity by between eight and 11 per cent.
She also cited research by the University of Salford in the United Kingdom, which linked classroom design to a difference of up to 16 per cent in pupils’ progress over a year.
The findings, she stressed, reinforced IDAN’s position that interior design extends beyond aesthetics to the planning and organisation of spaces to support the people who use them.
Beyond the corporate environment, Aki said the association also extends the argument to public infrastructure, with Project NEXUS, which will focus on the Sickle Cell Centre in Idi-Araba, Lagos, identified as a practical example of translating the summit’s theme into design action.
The association said the summit would provide a platform for policy discussions on public-building design, alongside panel sessions and interventions intended to demonstrate the practical application of professional interior design.
The summit, scheduled for October 24, is expected to be held at the Wole Soyinka Cultural Centre, Lagos, within the framework of Design Week Lagos.
In her submission, the Director of International Knowledge and Trade Exchange Programme at IDAN, Dr Omeba Ejiogu, called for a rethink of Nigeria’s approach to the built environment, stressing that international design and trade exchanges should inspire locally relevant solutions rather than the wholesale adoption of foreign building models.
She advocated learning from global design practices while recognising that architecture and interior design reflect the climates, cultures and environmental conditions of their respective regions.
Ejiogu, an interior designer, researcher and wellness design strategist, maintained that Nigeria must develop spaces that respond to its tropical climate, indigenous materials, cultural identity and ways of life.
She also called for the integration of indigenous spatial knowledge into contemporary design, citing traditional courtyards as examples of spaces that foster interaction, relaxation and community life.
She noted that collaboration among interior designers, urban planners, cultural institutions and other stakeholders presents an opportunity to rethink how the spaces Nigerians inhabit can promote wellbeing, social connection and sustainable development.
For Ejiogu, international exposure should strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to develop its own design identity and ensure that interiors are recognised as essential infrastructure for human experience and national development
