Eco-Conscious Commercial Interiors

Commercial interior designing, the art of conceptualizing a space for business plays a vital role in the success of a business. This includes hotels and lounges, restaurants and retail spaces, offices, banks, theaters, hospitals and examination rooms, libraries, schools, clubs, spas, shopping malls, and whatnot.

This aspect of interior designing differs from the one used for residential purposes in the fact that the latter highlights the livable space of the residents and their tastes. On the other hand, the commercial interior designing focuses on functionality, safety, and elevation of financial gain without compromising on the aesthetics and design making it more difficult task than the other.

Eco-conscious designing of commercial spaces has been on the rise recently due to the trend in the conversion of business strategies to reduce the carbon imprint and numerous benefits that come along with which helps in boosting the business. Kathy Fidew, the author of ‘The Manual of Interior Plantscaping,’ believes that they bring people together and builds an environment for cooperation and trust.

Plants act as focal points to attract attention to areas where people need to head and at times help to frame or conceal boards and objects. In rooms with less cloth and curtains, plants like Ficus trees and peace lilies act as natural sound mufflers by absorbing sounds of higher frequencies, thus changing the acoustics without altering the design of the room. Creating visual depth and delineating spaces to creating the feeling of the false ceiling to cover up tall ceilings are also what foliage can offer.

Bill Wolverton, the former research scientist of NASA, found out that the Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like benzene and formaldehyde present in the air can be converted into less harmful products by the plants and thus create safer and clean air. The psychological aspects of using plants within a business area and retail spaces include stress reduction, enabling positive mood, reduce fatigue, refocus attention, etc. This helps the employees and staff within an organization.

Heschong Mahone Group conducted a study in a California based call center to find out that the employees who had a view of some sort of foliage or vegetation performed far better than those working within four walls.

Biophilia, the natural affinity of humans towards plants, increase at such locations giving them a feeling of safety and soothes their minds which lead them to trust the surrounding. This particular trait alone leads to better customer satisfaction in a commercial area. Research has shown that customers believe that the value of the product being sold is greater when some sort of vegetation is present in the commercial area as opposed to no plants.

To convert a business into a thriving and booming enterprise may sometime lie in the hands of a talented commercial interior designer with lots of experience. The eco-conscious way of designing interiors far outweighs the traditional methods in every aspect of the success of a business. It is high time we realize the need of the hour and adopt this efficient and eco-friendly way to create just the right haven for customers and employees alike.

Life in secondary school

Urmila and her life in secondary school

Urmila was a chirpy little girl who liked to play with her friends and her little doll. Her favourite game was playing teacher. She used to gather her friends and teach them her favourite subject Math and English. Her parents were so proud of her and used to point out how she usually got all the sums correct and sometimes to show off her talents they used to make her recite tables. She also loved to recite poetry in all languages she learnt at school. Everyone was sure she had a bright future. 

Her father was a cab driver who earned enough to send her to a good Convent School where it is believed she would get the best education. Urmila had been quite a good student till the 5th standard but for some reason her grades started falling. In the 7th she almost completely stopped taking interest in studies. She would play with her dolls and fought with her mother to avoid sitting down for studies. She had by now stopped playing teacher.

Urmila sit down to study or no television for you today. Said her mother.

Urmila shrugged. She would just throw a tantrum and within some time they would let her watch her favourite serial. 

Her parents started pleading with her and shouting at her. They did whatever they could to try and make Urmila work harder at studies. But for Urmila studies had become boring. It was a common phase among school going children the parents exclaimed throwing their hands up. But for something so common it was surprising there was no cure.

Mr Shetty too was complaining about his son. Exclaimed Urmila"s father. "But he doesn't have an answer to this problem either.

There was a time when Urmila used to love going to school. School was where her friends were. She loved to play with her friends while waiting for her dad to pick her up. 

Now she hated going to school because nobody played with her after school. Everyone had tuitions. She used to sadly sit near the gate waiting for her dad. Where once she used to make her dad wait for her she now requested him to come early. 

Why do you come late dad, she cried. If you cannot come in time let me come with the school bus.

What could be the reason for the change?

Although Urmila parents noticed the change in her attitude they did not notice the change in her environment. She had to study more subjects now than she had to earlier. There were more things to remember. Teachers did not explain the lessons at school and tuition teachers were interested in completing homework and giving more practice. Urmila's child spirit was being killed. Her parents too reminded her she was growing. She had to be responsible. She tried to help around the house but that was not enough. Responsibility meant getting more marks than the neighbors son or daughter.

Will it be a surprise if she fails in standard 9 and is given a leaving certificate by the school that doesn't want to spoil it's average? Schools really don't care. They have enough students to take care of and show as an example of good teaching. Even if they are doing a bad job of it.

Schools have to change the way they approach subjects. We have to change the way we approach subjects. Most of history is important to the one who is interested in it. It is a subject that had been much politicised anyway. What if we have history for information only. Maybe just a period that shows history in audio visual format. That's it. No questions or exams should be required. Similarly, math is a vast subject. Why not teach basic math full the 7th standard. 

Standard 7 should be board exam. Till then students should learn to read, write and talk languages. Do basic math, know basic science and know some information from geography, civics, history, economics and even home science. Enough to help students to tackle most careers. For example trigonometry out geometry is not going to help a student who will decide to take up a career in finance or journalism. 

But what about engineering?

To tackle this problem students should be given psychometric tests and counseling so that they can choose their future occupations. Once they have chosen they can jump right into the kind of studies that will help to be good at what they want to become. So students need trigonometry can take up that and students who need chemistry can opt for that subject.

Keeping a buffet for students who cannot decide or who think they have chosen wrong can have open studies for them to join whenever they realise their calling.

Today we have schools that have academics and for holistic growth of the child give them physical education. Why can't we have sports schools that have academics or maybe a dance or drama school that also teaches academics. 

See you still love solving problems of math math problems addition subtraction multiplication extra she also used to love reading the stories that Weiner books other subjects did not interested but shit with them anyway because she loved going to the school. Badnam but now subjects had increased and become more difficult her friends although used to play with her as usual but the frequency and the way they approached studies at change. None of her friends now State Bank after school so she did not have anybody to play with she remembered she used to wait for her dad to pick her up while playing with friends now most of the friends left early because they wanted to attend tuitions. Nagma's dad Nagma had also ask her to go for tuitions and Nagma was now really desperate because she did not want to go unfortunately everybody was attending attending some class or the other and some of our friends now ahead of her in grades. Nagma who has been good in math and English without even trying had started lagging behind in Harsh studies her grades ok in science but not but now she was on the borderline some of her classmates and already made or changed groups and the intelligent children used to hang out together. Sum of Badmash old friends was still with her and shared Nagma dilemma. Mistress of gloomy the looming tuition class and the loss of plate I'm used to give them enough stress that they hardly played even during the play time of school.
Magnus parents 2 had changed from the usual happy Kapil 2 people who were constantly comparing her to the other students in her class for some reason the students who came first or in the top 10 ranks intelligent and Nagma was a little dumbo be because she could not cope with studies
Nagma now goes to a local tution teacher to improve grades local teachers formula to improve grades is continually write answers to the questions in the textbook and solve problems in the MacBook now Nagma finds herself this interested in maths and English to if this continuous problem Nagma will be either or drop out or as he usually a school High School if he fails in the 9th will ask her to leave since schools have to maintain their average results Nagma will join the ever increasing number of students who are the do not pass matriculation or attempt matriculation from privately however there now has become to get good marks or pass in the matriculation examination the lost your wish we haven't even talked about is what is Nagma going to do in life but a question has become how much marks will not make that and after that how much marks will she get in higher secondary what stream will should take in college how much marks will she get in college Nagma as dreams and aspirations have all been lost and will fade away in the coming years.