Written by Dhurgai Kumaran , Director Design – FHD Group

Interior design is the heart of a house that will reflect the style and personality of the residents. As part of the usual norms, people involve interior designers in the design process after the completion of architecture or when the apartment/ villa is handed over to the client. But is this actually the right time to involve interior architects? From our experience on one of our illustrious projects in Delhi, here are some of the insights on why we involve interior designers in the earlier stage of architectural design.

Living room view of FHD’s recently concluded interior project in Delhi

Flats/villa units located in apartments or gated communities put forward a strong curb on working hours making it limited to 5 days a week and 10.00 am to 5.00 pm per day. This will increase the execution time and schedule more than you usually expect. If the interior architects were not involved in the initial architectural design stage, we might end up spending more time in modifying the internal layout as per the personal preferences of the client. This internal layout change would increase the construction time and cost almost 20% more for demolition, removal of debris and relaying services like electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc. In the case of this 12000 sq.ft. apartment inside a gated community in Delhi, it took nearly 15 months to complete the interior work until the final hand over to the client.

Living room view of FHD’s recently concluded interior project in Delhi

Sometimes we purchase a couple of flats and club them into one to meet the space or expansion requirements and as expected, this process would involve more demolition and relaying. If the interior architects are involved in a project from the earlier stages, we could regulate the masonry work to avoid the additional time and money spent on demolishing structures.

Material wastage (like rewiring, plumbing layout and core cutting structure etc.) is another considerable issue when it comes to services that are not planned in time. For instance, each type of air conditioning requirement will demand a different ducting or piping systems depending upon the area. In such cases, if the interior architecture is in place and the planning is completed well in advance, we could embed those duct pipes in the structural system itself. Besides, a provision of air conditioning ducts already embedded in the structure will provide a good height clearance below the beam level. However, this might pose a restraint for any further modifications.

Well, talking about the factors that could delay the interior designing, imported materials as per client preference may pose some troubles as the delivery period of these imported items varies between 15 to 45 days based on their logistical arrangements. This delay can be avoided if we schedule the product delivery parallelly during the architectural construction period of the house.

As a best practice, scheduling the sequence of project execution and its milestone by item will help in managing and foreseeing the required time and cost benefits.

We at FHD Group are continuing to research on such topics and will be issuing periodic insights.

Email us at reachus@fhdgroup.in if you’d like to open up for any discussion.