Jargon
All industries have their own jargon and ours is no different. Here are a list of commonly used terms and their meaning.
- Furniture, Fittings and Finishes Specification - This is a document that details the particulars of the Furniture, Fittings and Finishes required to complete the interior.
- Interior Staging - Staging an interior involves the reorganisation of furniture and accessories to showcase an interiors best features.
- Project Management - With this form of managment system the Owner is able to retain direct control over all aspects and the quality of the project and the process allows the Owner more flexibility in decisionmaking. In addition, the Owner may realize the benefit of competitive bidding. With Project Management, the Designer and the Contractor have no formal contract between them and although they rely on each other to perform certain duties which affect each other's work, their contracts are onlywith the Owner. Under a Project Management agreement, the Owner selects the Contractor by whatever means he or she decides. The Designer can facilitate this process but has no direct responsibility for this decision. Under Project Management, the Designer has liability only for the design. The Contractor has liability for the actual work and its conformance to the Construction Documents. Under this agreement, for any decision which the Owner makes without the Designer's approval, the Owner assumes responsibility and liability.
- Construction Management - Construction Management
is a more "convenient" method of construction
project administration.
The Owner has only one
direct contract, with the Construction
Manager.
The Owner is not bothered by having to make every
decision and may realize a time reduction in the completion
of the job. Finally, the
Owner only has to deal with invoices from one company. With this form of construction administration, the Contractor
has a direct contract with the Designer and does
not have any direct agreement with the Owner and the Contractor
is paid by the Designer, not directly by the Owner. Under
Construction Management
the Designer agrees a price for the project with the Owner and then selects a Contractor who can deliver the project within this budget. Under
Construction Management,
the Consultant assumes
responsibility for both the
design and the construction. If
an issue were to arise, the Owner only
has one entity with whom to deal, although the final liability may be shared by the Consultant
and the Contractor.
Therefore an Owner's direct liability under this management system is less than under Project Management. - Spatial Planning - This is the reorganising of architectural elements or furniture in an interior.
- Construction Detailing - This is process of illustrating how architectural elements and bespoke joinery should be constructed, i.e. how the floor should be laid or how a door frame relates to the wall
- Opinions on Compliance - This is a document that states whether any work carried out to the house has been in compliance with the Building Regulations and Planning Law. Banks and Building Societies typically ask to see an Opinion on Compliance for all work carried out to a house before they approve a mortgage on it.
- Fire Safety Certificate Application Packages - Commercial Buildings undergoing renovation or conversion may need a fire safety certificate. If in doubt contact your local county council for advice
- Prelimenary Health & Safety Plan - Some commercial projects will need a Health & Safety Plan. If in doubt contact the HSA for advice.
- A Plan - a birds eye view of a building looking straight down.
- An Elevation - a worm's eye view of a room or piece of furniture.
- A Visual - a realistic sketch of the room as it would look if you were standing in it
- Rendered - Just a fancy word for coloured-in.
- An Image / Mood Board - A board with a series of images on it to give a sense of the atmosphere in a space
- A Sample Board - A board with images and / or samples or proposed finishes, furniture and fittings
- A Detail - a drawing of a very small part of the building produced at a large scale for construction purposes.
- Scales - If interior professionals were to draw everything at the size that it would be in real life, drawings would be immense so to get the same information across in a smaller format we draw things to scale. The scale we choose all depends on the size of building or amount of information the drawing needs to convey.
- Bespoke - purpose made / made to order.