I Hear Design: the i+s podcast

In the third and final episode of the Future Ready by Design series, host Robert Nieminen concludes his conversation with Mark Bryan, chief research and strategy officer at IIDA, about the provocative ideas emerging from IIDA’s Certified Design Futurist program and Futures Readiness Index. Following Part 1’s focus on Prove It and Part 2’s focus on Feel It, this episode turns to Sustain It—a broader look at how design can create longer-lasting value by reducing churn across workplaces, products, retail environments, and the built environment. Bryan discusses the rise of the two-speed workplace, where AI adoption is creating different speeds of work, decision-making, and confidence among teams. He explains why this is not only a technology or management issue, but a design challenge that requires new spaces, systems, and tools for making human judgment more visible, trackable, and transparent. The conversation also explores how repair, refurbishment, take-back programs, deconstruction planning, and circular systems may reshape expectations for furniture and products. Bryan describes repair not only as a sustainability strategy, but as a potential community experience, service model, and new form of engagement between manufacturers, dealers, sales teams, facilities teams, and end users. Finally, Nieminen and Bryan discuss the idea of anti-impulse retail and how physical stores may evolve as shoppers seek calmer, more curated, and more confidence-building environments. Rather than simply driving impulse purchases, future retail spaces may need to help customers verify claims, compare options, and make slower, more intentional decisions. Together, these ideas point to a future in which design value is defined not only by what a space can prove or how it helps people feel, but by how well it supports judgment, repair, trust, and durability over time.

What can the world’s largest design fair tell us about where interior design is headed? In this ICYMI episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit the trends and innovations that stood out at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 based on an article published by interiors+sources. The show reflected an industry increasingly focused on longevity, material integrity, sustainability, and technology that works quietly in the background rather than demanding attention. We also explore the rise of computational craft, where digital fabrication and emerging technologies are being paired with traditional making, as well as the growing influence of international markets on materials, products, and design thinking. Listen in for a closer look at what Salone 2026 suggests about the evolving priorities shaping commercial interiors—and what designers should be watching next.

In Part 2 of the Future Ready by Design series, host Robert Nieminen continues his conversation with Mark Bryan, chief research and strategy officer at IIDA, about the ideas emerging from IIDA’s Certified Design Futurist program and Futures Readiness Index. Following Part 1’s discussion of proof, accountability, and outcomes-based design, this episode shifts into the theme Feel It: how the built environment supports the way people feel. Bryan discusses loneliness as a spatial issue and explains why simply adding lounges, shared tables, or collision zones is not enough to create meaningful connection. He also explores the need to design for purpose, programming, identity, and choice so people can show up more fully without feeling exposed or pressured. The conversation then turns to catharsis and emotional release, asking whether future workplaces, homes, hospitality environments, and amenity spaces may need to move beyond quiet rooms and wellness spaces to support safe ways of expelling stress. Bryan also discusses sound as an active design medium, sleep as an emerging amenity, and the opportunity for designers, manufacturers, and owners to define which emotional outcomes they want their spaces and products to support. Together, these ideas point to a future in which design value is measured not only by what a space looks like or proves, but by how well it helps people regulate, recover, connect, and feel.

In this In Case You Missed It episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit an article from interiors+sources that explores how Hendrick designed Synovus Place, a 122,000-square-foot downtown Columbus, Georgia, headquarters, around community, change, and employee experience. The project brought several locations together under one roof while using workplace strategy, change management, interior design, and environmental graphic design to help employees navigate the transition. The design centers community as both a spatial and cultural framework, with flexible work settings, transparent connections, quiet areas, social spaces, biophilic elements, and amenities that support comfort and choice. Brand storytelling, color, materials, and graphics further connect Synovus’ culture and local roots to the workplace experience. Listen in for a closer look at how Hendrick approached workplace transition, community, flexibility, employee well-being, and brand storytelling to shape the Synovus Place headquarters—and how those strategies come together to create a more connected workplace experience.

The language of sustainable materials is getting more complicated. Terms like bio-based, bio-sourced, bio-attributed, and USDA BioPreferred® are increasingly common in product literature, but they don’t necessarily mean the same thing—or provide the same level of verification. In this ICYMI episode of I Hear Design, we revisit an interiors+sources article that breaks down the terminology designers and specifiers should understand when evaluating renewable material claims. Learn how ASTM D6866 testing helps verify bio-based content, how supply-chain tracking differs from lab verification, and why a higher percentage of renewable content doesn’t always tell the full sustainability or performance story. It’s a practical primer for design professionals who want to look beyond marketing language, ask better questions, and specify bio-based materials with greater confidence.

What does it really take to build a healthy design practice today? On this episode of I Hear Design, Robert Nieminen speaks with David Shove-Brown, co-founder and partner at Washington, D.C.-based architecture and design firm //3877, about the systems, values, and leadership habits that help firms stay resilient over time. Their conversation explores how culture, accountability, transparency, and mentorship shape everything from retention and team trust to client relationships and project outcomes. Shove-Brown also explains how //3877 used B Corp certification not simply as a credential, but as a framework for operationalizing its values, measuring impact, and challenging traditional assumptions about how design firms should work. For leaders thinking about the future of practice, this episode offers a candid look at what sustainable, accountable firm leadership can look like in real terms.

When should interior architects join a project team? According to this article, the answer is simple: at the very beginning. In this In Case You Missed It episode of I Hear Design, we revisit an interiors+sources feature exploring why interior architects should be involved from the earliest planning stages rather than after key architectural decisions have already been made. The article examines how early collaboration improves space planning, user experience, coordination among project teams, and long-term project value while helping avoid costly redesigns later in the process. It also challenges the misconception that interior architecture is primarily about finishes, highlighting its strategic role in shaping the built environment from day one. Whether you're an architect, interior designer, or design professional working across disciplines, this episode offers a timely reminder that the best projects are often the result of integrated thinking from the very start.    

In the third and final installment of the Foundations of Community series, I Hear Design host Robert Nieminen speaks with Joshua Zinder, managing partner of JZA+D and co-founder of Landau | Zinder Architecture, about the evolving role of worship spaces in contemporary community life. Zinder shares how growing up in a Percival Goodman-designed synagogue helped shape both his faith and his path into architecture, and explains why worship facilities today must do far more than provide a sanctuary for weekly services. As congregations face changing attendance patterns, aging buildings, accessibility needs, financial pressures, and new expectations for education and community engagement, architects are being asked to help faith communities rethink how their facilities can support both spiritual connection and long-term resilience. The conversation explores how design can create awe and transcendence without cathedral-sized budgets, what may be lost (and gained) when worship environments are driven primarily by technology and production, and how sacred spaces can balance ritual, storytelling, flexibility and practical use. Zinder also discusses universal accessibility as a matter of dignity and belonging, strategies for right-sizing older facilities, and the emerging role of faith-based redevelopment, including mixed-use projects that may incorporate housing, healthcare, retail, or other community-serving uses. For architects, designers and anyone interested in the relationship between faith, place, and community, this episode considers how worship spaces can continue to inspire connection to the divine while also serving the very real needs of the people who gather there. Connect with Our Guest: Joshua Zinder Architecture + Design (JZA+D) Website: https://joshuazinder.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jzad.architecture/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joshua-zinder-architecture-design Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzad.architecture/   Landau | Zinder Architecture (LZ) Website: https://www.landauzinder.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/landauzinder/

As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, Product Talk explores the enduring impact of American manufacturing on commercial design. Lauren Brant sits down with Joseph Namyst of Davis Furniture and Casey Baxter of HBF + HBF Textiles to discuss craftsmanship, domestic manufacturing, sustainability, and the partnerships shaping the future of American-made furniture and textiles. Discover how heritage and innovation continue to define lasting design.

In this In Case You Missed It episode of I Hear Design, we revisit a recent interiors+sources article on Unilever’s newly reimagined North American headquarters in Hoboken, New Jersey. Designed by Perkins&Will, the 111,000-square-foot workplace consolidates Unilever’s former 350,000-square-foot suburban headquarters into a more compact urban campus built for discovery, testing, collaboration, and brand experience. Rather than functioning as a traditional corporate office, the new HQ is organized around Unilever’s product development process—Discover, Define, Test, and Deliver—with spaces that support everything from hands-on experimentation to consumer feedback and storytelling. Listeners will hear how features such as a professional-grade kitchen, full-service salon, retail lab, company store, modular partitions, mobile furnishings, and flexible work zones help Unilever teams experience products the way consumers do. The episode also explores the project’s broader workplace implications, including how urban location, right-sizing, reuse, and adaptable design can help companies rethink the role of the office in a hybrid era. Tune in for a closer look at how workplace design can become a platform for innovation, sustainability, employee engagement, and brand connection.

In this episode of I Hear Design, Robert Nieminen continues the three-part Designing the Foundations of Community series with a look at K-12 school design and what it takes to create better learning environments for students and communities today. Joining the show are Albert Aronov, principal at RKTB Architects and head of the firm’s educational studio, and Nelya Sachakova, who leads RKTB’s new school buildings and additions team. Together, they explore how much of today’s school work, especially in dense urban settings like New York City, is less about building from scratch and more about expanding, modernizing, and rethinking existing schools. The conversation covers what it means to design additions that feel seamlessly integrated with existing buildings while campuses remain fully operational, how accessibility can reshape the experience and dignity of a school, and why public schools must often function as both educational environments and civic infrastructure. Albert and Nelya also discuss art integration, indoor air quality, sustainability, and the challenge of delivering durable, inspiring public schools that are accountable to taxpayers and built to last for generations.

As Chicago Design Week 2026 approaches, the conversation around commercial interiors is expanding beyond product launches and showroom trends at NeoCon and Design Days to focus more deeply on the materials that shape our built environments. In this episode of I Hear Design, host Robert Nieminen welcomes back Kenn Busch of Material Intelligence and welcomes Jon Strassner, founder of ReWritten and host of Once Upon a Planet, for a timely discussion about materiality, sustainability storytelling, and circular design. Together, they preview what attendees can expect from Destination NeoCon and the ReWritten pop-up, while unpacking why designers, specifiers, and manufacturers need to ask better questions about what products are made of, where they come from, how they perform, and what happens at the end of their useful life. The conversation explores embodied carbon, material transparency, supply chain accountability, certifications, circularity, remanufacturing, reuse, product take-back programs, and the challenge of making sustainability feel accessible rather than overwhelming. Busch and Strassner also explain why storytelling may be one of the most powerful tools the design industry has to move sustainable material choices from niche conversations into the mainstream.