Gabrielle Bullock, FAIA, NOMAC, IIDA, LEED AP

Principal and Director of Global Diversity
Perkins and Will, Los Angeles

Expertise/Specializations/Interests: equity, inclusion, and diversity; global context; architecture; healthcare and institutional environments; leadership and mentoring

What is the highest and best purpose of interior design?

Design, whether architecture, interior design, landscape or industrial design should:

·         Speak to those that engage and experience it

·         Delight our sense of beauty and intrigue

·         Be authentic to the engager, speak to their culture

·         Have an innate sense that it is for all

·         Beauty is universal in its impact. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…interior design should respond to the beholder

·         There is an opportunity for interior design to tell stories…all stories

·         Interior design should go beyond the “shiny object”

·         Interior design can respond to societal social and health challenges

When I think of the role and responsibility of design, whether architecture, landscape or interior design I think of how design captures, responds and creates environments of wonder, calm, intrigue and relevance.

Often, interior design creates or perpetuates elite spaces that do not speak to those of all demographics or stations in life. There is an opportunity for interior design to bravely respond to the societal social and health conditions we face in private and public environments. It is an opportunity for Interior Design to be bold and authentic in its storytelling, space-keeping and cultural competency.

Interior design can be the reflector and driver of education, health, workplace, public and civic space that speaks to and elevates the impact of design on all lives. Design has the power to transform lives and now more than ever we need equitable access to all things design.