I Hear Design: the i+s podcast

Colleges and universities are under pressure to prove their value as they navigate enrollment challenges, affordability concerns, student retention, and changing expectations around the campus experience. In this episode of the I Hear Design podcast, host Robert Nieminen speaks with Martin Kimmel, founding principal and chief creative officer of Kimmel Architecture, about how the physical campus can help institutions clarify who they are and why students should choose them.
Kimmel discusses what a higher ed “identity crisis” looks like from an architect’s perspective, how buildings can either reinforce or dilute an institution’s mission, and why campus design should align with recruitment, retention, wellness, belonging, and long-term value. The conversation also explores the evolving role of libraries as student-success hubs, the importance of designing spaces where students can feel “alone together,” and how colleges can achieve meaningful transformation through extraordinary solutions for ordinary budgets.

Sound influences every space we design, yet acoustics are often treated as an afterthought. In this episode of Product Talk, Lauren Brant sits down with Dr. Robert MacMeccan, President of Turf Design, to explore why acoustics should be considered one of the foundational elements of architecture and interior design—not simply a finishing touch. Together they discuss evidence-based design, neuroinclusive environments, workplace productivity, healthcare healing spaces, and how thoughtful acoustic solutions create healthier, more functional experiences for everyone. Whether you're designing workplaces, schools, healthcare facilities, or hospitality spaces, this conversation will change the way you think about sound.

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.

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.