I Hear Design: the i+s podcast

Foundations of Community (Pt. 2): Designing Better K-12 Schools with Albert Aranov and Nelya Sachakova

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.

How Armstrong Flooring® Kaleido™ Color Lab Is Expanding Creative Possibilities in Commercial Flooring with Oxana Dallas

In this special sponsored bonus episode of the I Hear Design podcast, host Robert Nieminen speaks with Oxana Dallas, principal designer of commercial at AHF Products, about how Armstrong Flooring®’s Kaleido™ Color Lab is reimagining the flooring specification process as a more creative, flexible, and digitally driven design experience.
Rather than treating flooring as a finish selected near the end of a project, Kaleido invites designers to become co-creators—experimenting with pattern, color and scale. Dallas explains how the platform gives designers a curated yet highly adaptable system for developing custom LVT visuals that align with a project’s brand identity, emotional tone, and performance needs.
Listeners will learn how Prism™, Mosaic™, and Mirage™ patterns draw on biophilic principles without literally mimicking nature, instead translating qualities such as rhythm, complexity, order, and visual tactility into modular flooring designs. Dallas also discusses how Kaleido’s floor-to-wall capability expands the role of LVT beyond the floor, opening new possibilities for wayfinding, feature walls, patient rooms, hospitality spaces, workplace environments, and other commercial interiors.
The conversation also explores how customization, speed, and sustainability can work together. With more than 500 combinations of pattern, color, and scale—as well as stocked neutral options—Kaleido is designed to help specifiers move quickly without sacrificing creativity or client confidence. Dallas highlights the platform’s made-to-order model, domestic manufacturing, accessible minimum order quantities of only 2,500 sf,  EPDs, and long-term performance attributes as part of a broader shift toward more intentional, durable, and project-specific commercial flooring solutions.
For designers, architects, and specifiers looking for ways to bring more personality, purpose, and performance into commercial interiors, this episode offers insight into how digital visualization, biophilic design thinking, and resilient flooring technology are converging to create more expressive surface design systems.

ICYMI: Performance-Based Fire Modeling: Unlocking Design Freedom While Meeting Egress and Life Safety Codes

In this In Case You Missed It episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit an interiors+sources article exploring how performance-based fire modeling can help architects and designers resolve one of the most difficult tensions in adaptive reuse and renovation work: preserving design intent while meeting life safety and egress requirements.
The article explains how prescriptive code requirements can sometimes force costly or disruptive design changes, from added exit stairs and wider corridors to reconfigured layouts that compromise the original concept. Performance-based fire and egress modeling offers another path by using data, simulations, and expert analysis to demonstrate that a building can meet or exceed the intent of life safety codes—even when it does not follow every prescriptive requirement exactly.
Listeners will learn how tools such as computational fluid dynamics, fire dynamics simulation, and egress modeling help evaluate Available Safe Egress Time and Required Safe Egress Time, as well as why early collaboration with fire protection engineers and authorities having jurisdiction is critical. The episode also highlights where performance-based design can unlock flexibility for historic buildings, warehouse conversions, office-to-clinic transformations and other complex projects where code compliance and creative vision can appear to be at odds.
Tune in to hear how fire modeling can become more than a technical workaround; it can be a design enabler that supports safety, flexibility, and more successful project outcomes.

Foundations of Community (Pt. 1): Affordable Multifamily Housing with Peter Bafitis and Alex Brito

Affordable multifamily housing is one of the most urgent design and development challenges in the U.S., but the reasons it remains so difficult to build go far beyond simple supply and demand. In this episode of I Hear Design, Robert Nieminen speaks with Peter Bafitis, managing principal at RKTB Architects, and Alex Brito, principal and leader of the firm’s affordable housing studio, about the forces shaping the housing crisis today—from approvals, zoning, financing, and public-private partnerships to construction costs, sustainability mandates, and the realities of building in New York City.
The conversation also explores a larger idea: affordable housing as community infrastructure, not just real estate. Peter and Alex discuss why good affordable housing should be designed with the same care and dignity as market-rate housing, how durability and timelessness matter in projects meant to serve neighborhoods for decades, where office-to-residential conversions genuinely make sense, and why smaller “missing middle” projects may be just as important as large-scale developments in addressing the shortage. This episode is the first in the two-part series Designing the Foundations of Community.

Product Talk | What Will Define Chicago Design Week 2026 with BIFMA's Steve Kooy and Anthony Serge

Today’s commercial products are being asked to do more than ever before. Joined by Steve Kooy and Anthony Serge from BIFMA, Lauren Brant explores how wellness, modularity, emotional performance, and experiential lighting are shaping Chicago Design Week 2026.
Key Moments in This Episode
1:12 — Why Chicago Design Week 2026 feels differentLauren Brant introduces the major themes shaping this year’s NeoCon and Fulton Market Design Days, including wellness, adaptability, emotional comfort, and long-term product performance.
4:38 — Products are being asked to do moreThe conversation explores how manufacturers are positioning products as strategic tools that support flexibility, acoustics, maintenance, sustainability, and human experience—not just aesthetics.
8:57 — Emotional comfort and experiential workplacesLauren highlights product launches from brands like Designtex, Brentano, Allsteel, and HBF that reflect a growing focus on tactility, softness, and creating spaces people actively want to inhabit.
13:41 — BIFMA on what feels different heading into 2026Steve Kooy and Anthony Serge from BIFMA discuss how conversations around workplace products, wellness, and performance are evolving across the industry.
20:06 — Why modularity is no longer optionalLauren examines how adaptability has shifted from a premium feature to a baseline expectation across seating, acoustics, outdoor furniture, work pods, and specification technology.
24:18 — Long-term adaptability and lifecycle thinkingThe discussion looks at products from Silen, Emuamericas, DEDON, Turf Design, and Configura that prioritize reconfiguration, longevity, and collaborative workflows.
30:27 — Lighting takes center stage at NeoConLauren explores the debut of Illuminate at NeoCon and why lighting is increasingly being discussed as part of materiality, wellness, circadian health, and emotional experience.
34:44 — How lighting shapes perception and wellbeingThe episode dives into experiential lighting installations and how lighting design influences texture, finish perception, mood, and spatial psychology.
39:51 — From ergonomics to movementThe conversation shifts toward workplace wellness and movement-focused seating, including KI’s Cognetic Technology platform and the idea of designing environments that work with the body instead of against it.
44:32 — The future of specification and human-centered designLauren, Steve, and Anthony reflect on how commercial interiors are becoming increasingly outcome-oriented, with designers prioritizing adaptability, transparency, wellness, and emotional experience.
48:11 — Final takeaways for NeoCon and Fulton Market attendeesThe episode closes with advice for designers and specifiers on how to critically evaluate products, showrooms, and innovations during Chicago Design Week 2026.

ICYMI: The Business Case for Immersive Experiences in Commercial Interiors

Immersive experiences are no longer limited to entertainment venues, museums, or high-profile attractions. In commercial interiors, designers are increasingly using experience-driven strategies to create stronger brand identity, deeper engagement, and more memorable places.
In this In Case You Missed It episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit “The Business Case for Immersive Experiences in Commercial Interiors” by Valerie Dennis Craven. The article explores how immersive design is moving from novelty to business strategy, showing how companies are blending physical environments, digital technology, storytelling, materials, and sensory design to connect with employees, visitors, and clients.
Listeners will hear examples from corporate interiors, including AllianceBernstein’s Dreamwall by Gensler, and learn why successful immersive environments require more than screens or spectacle. The episode also examines how authenticity, brand alignment, user experience, accessibility, budget, and long-term maintenance all play a role in determining whether an immersive interior feels meaningful—or merely distracting.
Tune in to learn what designers should consider before concepting an immersive experience, why “Day 2” planning matters, and how commercial spaces can deliver value by creating moments people remember, engage with, and return to.

How Retail Design Is Becoming Social Infrastructure with Greg Lyon

What keeps people coming back to physical spaces in an increasingly digital world? In this episode of I Hear Design, Robert Nieminen speaks with Greg Lyon, chairman and president of Nadel Architects, about how retail and mixed-use environments are being reimagined as places for connection, culture, and community. Lyon explores why brick-and-mortar retail continues to evolve rather than disappear, how dining and entertainment have become essential anchors, and what architects can learn from successful urban districts when designing modern “third spaces.” The conversation also touches on authenticity, local identity, and why the most compelling destinations today are those that give people a reason to linger.

ICYMI: When Architecture Listens: Community Spaces Shaped By History And Land

In this In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit an article by Nicholas McWhirter, AIA, NCARB, design principal and studio head at SHM Architects, on what it means for architecture to truly listen. Through projects at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society and in Crested Butte, Colorado, McWhirter examines how community spaces can be shaped by history, landscape, and long-term use.
Rather than replicate historic architecture or impose a disconnected contemporary gesture, these projects demonstrate a more nuanced approach: translating precedent, designing for transformation, and treating land as an active part of the program. The episode explores how adaptable pavilions, framed views, and long-term institutional relationships can create spaces that serve communities across seasons, events, and generations.

Why Material Intelligence Matters at NeoCon and Chicago Design Week 2026 with Jon Strassner and Kenn Busch

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.

ICYMI: Swan Dive Design Studio Transforms a Sam’s Club into a Community Hub and Pickleball Destination

In this In Case You Missed It episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit an interiors+sources article by Janelle Penny on Relish Food Hall + Pickleball, an 88,000-square-foot adaptive reuse project in Louisville, Colorado, designed by Swan Dive Design Studio. Once a former Sam’s Club (and briefly used as a community center after the 2021 Marshall Fire), the building has been reimagined as a year-round destination with 19 indoor pickleball courts, two outdoor courts, eight locally driven food concepts, a coffee shop, full bar, event spaces, conference areas, outdoor patio and game lawn.
The episode looks at how Swan Dive used zoning, circulation, acoustical separation, playful material references, and strategic indoor-outdoor connections to make a massive big-box space feel welcoming, human-scaled, and community-centered. It’s a story about adaptive reuse, design constraints, bold client trust and the growing role of experiential destinations in giving underused retail buildings a second life.