I Hear Design: the i+s podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Textiles are no longer just a finishing touch—they’re a high-performance design solution. In this episode of Product Talk, Lauren Brant explores how textiles are shaping acoustics, wellness, and sustainability while influencing how people feel and interact within a space.
From antimicrobial and acoustic fabrics to the rise of tactility and wellness-driven trends like “soft-clubbing,” this episode breaks down why materials matter more than ever. Plus, a look at evolving sustainability standards, certifications, and smarter sampling practices.
Key Moments in This Episode
00:00 – Introduction: Why textiles deserve a second lookRethinking textiles as essential to performance, wellness, and storytelling—not just aesthetics.
01:30 – Soft is doing hard workHow textiles are replacing traditional building systems with acoustic, antimicrobial, and performance-driven solutions.
04:30 – The rise of tactility and wellnessWhy touch, comfort, and emotional response are shaping material specification.
06:00 – What is “soft-clubbing”?A cultural shift toward wellness-driven social spaces and how it’s influencing interior design.
08:00 – Behavioral design through textilesHow materials like bouclé, wool, and linen impact how people feel, stay, and remember a space.
10:00 – Sustainability to accountabilityWhy “eco-friendly” isn’t enough anymore—and what designers should be asking instead.
11:30 – Understanding textile certificationsBreaking down OEKO-TEX® and GOTS and what they actually verify.
13:30 – Rethinking material samplingHow platforms and take-back programs are reducing waste and supporting circularity.
15:00 – Craft vs. technologyThe balance between high-performance textiles and handcrafted, human-centered design.
16:30 – Design takeaways for specifiersKey strategies for evaluating textiles as functional, sensory, and storytelling tools.
18:00 – Outro: Spec smarterFinal thoughts on why textiles are now doing the heavy lifting—technically, emotionally, and environmentally.

What does sustainable design actually look like when you strip away the rhetoric? In this Earth Month episode of I Hear Design, host Robert Nieminen takes a thoughtful (and at times provocative) look at the state of the sustainability conversation in architecture and design. Drawing on reporting from interiors+sources, BUILDINGS, Architectural Products, and Building Design+Construction, he explores why the strongest case for sustainability has never been moral perfection, but better buildings: healthier, more efficient, more resilient, and better equipped for a changing world. From adaptive reuse and LEED v5 to embodied carbon, smart building controls, and resilience planning, this episode challenges both cynicism and climate melodrama while offering a more practical framework for progress.

In this In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) episode, we revisit an interiors+sources article titled, "From Classroom to Career: The People Who Shape a Designer's Path," about the vital role mentorship plays in shaping the next generation of designers. While formal education builds technical knowledge, this conversation highlights why soft skills like communication, teamwork, and time management are often what determine early-career success. Drawing on insights from leaders at ASID, //3877, and FCA, the episode examines how mentorship can strengthen confidence, create meaningful professional connections, and help emerging designers navigate the path from classroom to career.

What does it take to build an interiors team from scratch and make it a true strategic partner to architecture, not a “finishes at the end” function?
In this episode of I Hear Design, we sit down with Christina Franklin, Partner and Director of Interior Design at Generator Studio in Kansas City. Christina shares what it was like joining as a team of one and how she established the foundations that allowed an interiors practice to scale, which included defining a clear point of view, clarifying the scope of ownership, and embedding interiors into the design process from day one.
We also talk about what “hospitality-forward design” really means beyond buzzwords (translating it into tangible decisions like arrival sequence, lighting, and emotional resonance instead), plus the tools and standards that help maintain quality as a team grows. Christina also offers a candid take on AI as an early-stage ideation tool, how to gauge whether a team is truly healthy, and the leadership shift she calls out most: learning to release control and build trust.