| The main objective of the IID is to promote the recognition of the professional status of its members in the interior design sector. The IID actively pursues this by lobbying for the formal recognition of interior design as a profession in the built-environment. Thus far, the IID in collaboration with its Education Committee and University of Pretoria achieved the following milestones: |
- In 2009 the IID was recognised as a Voluntary Association (VA) of the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP); simultaneously the Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria (UP) developed a preliminary professional framework which was submitted to SACAP.
|
- In 2010 the IID and UP joined forces and developed a revised professional framework. This framework was benchmarked against the other built-environment professions and complies with the minimum standards set by the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI). The framework proposed three professional categories (Interior Designer, Senior Interior Designer and Interior Architect), with candidacies in each respective category. The professional life cycle of a designer will be the same as that of all other BE professionals; namely formal education, experience, examination and continual professional development (CBD). The framework was co-signed by the Department of Interior Design at the University of Johannesburg and The Department of Architectural Technology and Interior Design, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
|
- During 2010 the IID Education Committee (EC) developed interior competencies for the different registration categories. These competencies are benchmarked against the other BE professions (specifically with our sister discipline, architecture) and was informed by the international publication, The Interior Design Profession’s Body of Knowledge. The competencies were formally endorsed by the EC in 2011.
|
- The IID AGM conducted in November 2011 unanimously accepted the proposed professional framework.
|
- The IID made formal contact with the Council for the Built-Environment (CBE) and Parliament’s Portfolio Committee of Public Works with the aim to promote the framework and to lobby for its formal adoption.
|
- The IID was recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) to register professional designations against qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). This will allow the IID to formally control the professional designations created in the professional framework. The registration of designations will follow the accepted professional framework and allow for rigorous oversight of interior design higher education (this will follow a peer-review process, which must still be developed).
|
- In the near future the interior design occupation will achieve control of its title (through the three designations). The full professionalisation of interior design will be dependent on achieving a service monopoly for the services of the profession.
|
