Dr. Mahmoud's academic journey is marked by a rich integration of diverse cultural and educational experiences. She earned her foundational degrees from the prestigious College of Fine Arts at Helwan University, Egypt, and further advanced her studies at the renowned École d’Architecture d’Intérieure Camondo in France. Her multilingual proficiency in French, English, and Arabic enhances her ability to engage with varied cultures, bringing a global perspective to her work, particularly in the field of Interior Design. With a teaching career spanning over 30 years, Dr. Mahmoud has built a legacy of fostering student success. A testament to her teaching efficacy is the array of awards, acclaimed positions, and significant publications her students have achieved under her mentorship. Notably, she has supervised award-winning research since 2013 and guided her protégés to the prestigious IFI Award in 2009. Additionally, many of her students have pursued advanced degrees, earning Master’s and Ph.D. qualifications in Interior Design. Dr. Mahmoud's research endeavors have made a significant impact on the field of Interior Design, particularly in the areas of lighting and acoustics. Among her notable contributions is her advanced study on the interplay of illumination and sound in conference halls, which has set industry benchmarks. Furthermore, she has pioneered the integration of these two critical elements within interior design layouts. Dr. Mahmoud has been an active contributor to the academic framework, lending her expertise to pivotal committees such as accreditation and strategic planning for the Department of Interior Design. Her role in the Curricula and Study Plan Committee was instrumental in aligning course content with industry demands, ensuring students are prepared for future challenges. During her tenure as department head (2019–2020), she spearheaded the establishment of the Lighting and Acoustical Lab for interior experimentation and applications. Beyond its setup, she championed the lab's development through bureaucratic channels, positioning it as an invaluable resource for students, researchers at Ajman University, and external scholars. This initiative not only enhanced AU’s academic reputation but also expanded its outreach and revenue streams. Many organizations have selected Dr. Mahmoud for representation, such as the APID Ambassador for preparing for the IFI Congress Dubai 2020. These selections have celebrated her individual excellence and enhanced AU's reputation in the global educational landscape. Dr. Mahmoud is affiliated with esteemed professional institutions and editorial boards, such as the Journal of Interior Design and IDEC. With her extensive publication record and wealth of experience, she actively seeks collaborations with fellow researchers, aspiring Ph.D. candidates, and academic institutions, aiming to push the boundaries of knowledge in the field of the interior built environment.
Dubai was one of the top three real estate destinations in the world for investment in 2020. This paper aims to understand the order of preference for various housing determinants by housing consumers in Dubai. As a methodology, a survey was conducted on Dubai residents, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was performed to identify the housing determinants and consumers’ preferences. In addition, the respondents’ demographic characteristics identified priorities by income, place of residence, age, gender, and type of house. The results showed that housing consumers place importance on housing price and rent (0.0918) and investment value (0.0866). However, there was no serious consideration for social and psychological factors other than safety (0.0730). Regarding gender, men place more importance on the housing price and rent (0.113) and the investment value (0.110). In comparison, women place more importance on factors such as the convenience of transportation (0.104), safety (0.093), and residential environment (0.082). In the age groups, the interest in the educational environment (0.081) among the 40-year-olds was relatively high. In terms of monthly income, the higher the income, the higher the interest in investment value (0.086).
The elderly are more prone to develop depression from physical, psychological, and economic changes, and 25.7% of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) elderly population suffer from depression. Color therapy is a widely accepted treatment to solve the depressive symptoms of the elderly. The color preference of the Seniors’ Happiness Centre—in Ajman UAE—a residential space for the elderly, could improve the quality of life, including depression symptoms. This paper explored the relationship between the color preference of the resident bedroom space and the depressive symptoms. As a methodology, using color images as stimuli, the physiological and psychological responses of the 86 elderly participants to the proposed color preference of the resident bedroom interiors—observed through a viewing box to simulate 3D space perception—were compared and analyzed to investigate the relationship between the color preference and depression by a survey with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurement. The results showed that the elderly’s preference for warm colors is higher than that of cold colors, and each room needs a different color scheme because the elderly, 65 and above, have different visual characteristics. There was no significant difference between the left and right alpha wave values of the prefrontal cortex of the participant group. The main reason is that the brain waves are minute electrical signals and appear different from person to person. The color scheme on one side of the wall with increased saturation seemed to improve depressive symptoms effectively. It was found that psychologically, healthy elderly reacted positively to the single-color scheme of the Blue cool color, but elderly with depression reacted well to the contrast color scheme of the Blue-Yellow/Red cool color. This study will serve as critical data to propose more color preferences for the Seniors’ Happiness Center suitable for the elderly by studying the response to more diverse colors in the UAE.
Discussing, investigating, and exploring the history of design and decoration uncovers many roots. However, suppose we begin to recognize the description of the profession and foundations of interior design and decoration. In that case, we can define critical words about the subjects without going into specialized conventions.
Light matters when accentuating colors within a work of art. Light matters when dealing with a historical collection. Light matters to create a lasting viewing experience.
When we imagine the future of the interior environment, our minds typically start drawing pictures of ultimately white spaces with high reflecting surfaces, robotics, screens, and technologies dominating the area, and while that is not completely wrong, there is more depth into these concepts. Futuristic interiors aim to grasp a better understanding of humans’ psychology and their behaviors. This research takes the initiative to visualize how research and therapy centers will look like in the future, taking into consideration the evolution of humans’ needs in terms of health, psychology, physiology, and comfort. Multiple psychological theories will be highlighted, starting with exploring the aspects of creativity & innovation in research, along with introducing the “Emotional Security” motivation, shedding light on the need for control and belonging. The research then decides to take another angle to review factors shaping the interior environment. There is no denying that the current COVID-19 pandemic will affect our interiors, and that is why looking for approaches and guidelines to protect the health of the occupants and limit the spread of the infection is also discussed in a later stage of the research. Finally, when combining all these perspectives, the author will introduce solutions such as utilizing artificial intelligence, hygienic materials, and a new point of view of space planning. Design decision boards, bubble diagrams, and design scenarios are also included which will aid in visualizing the space more cohesively.
Interior design and Interior Psychology lead to interior designology that explores the aspects of the interior environment surrounding human beings and influences how a person experiences the world around them. The isolation imposed on humanity – due to the Covid19 – left no option for the workspace, except the in homes. Furniture, furnishing, and equipment sales drastically increased due to newfound interest that immerged in many new residential interiors and home offices (Kim, R., 2020). All the human outdoor activities became indoors. Students and professors found themselves trapped in their houses, with no interaction, as it is a vital tool in the educational process. The imagination and the development resulting from face-to-face interaction are discontinued, and the sense of remoteness is raised, leaving them with substantial mental and physical difficulties. The paper discusses a problem that faces the end-users, especially the students and their instructors, who were not ready for such changes. All the interior regulations were a topic of disruption, and the need for updated and adapted guidelines is crucial in this time of crisis. Not all of our interiors were ready regarding functionality and the overall environmental layout. The accommodation of the new lifestyle, temporary or permanent for some fields, needs help to facilitate a quarantined life, especially in the educational sector, humanity's future.
Freehand drawing courses are essential in almost all design disciplines, especially in the interior design program. This course has a significant impact on strengthening the neuromuscular compatibility between the eye, the mind, and the movement of the designer’s hand. The ability to draw by hand brings in all ideas and creativity that the mind can imagine, to manifest in front of us. The mind is responsible for the movement of the hand, thus creating a strong link between the two, which results in the freeing of the imagination. Freehand drawing courses help train all the senses necessary for the process of design creativity and creation. It not only works as a communication tool between the designer, their mind, and the potential client, but it also plays an important role in the field of interior design with respect to creation and problem-solving. This paper highlights where the problems exist in the lack of awareness of the course’s role, impact, and methods of teaching it. This paper also describes the goals of freehand drawing courses and their roles in many of the major tasks of the Interior Design program. In particular, Training examples are provided to demonstrate how to build the students’ perception and hand-drawing skills that aid in their future of interior design. Additionally, didactic suggestions will be provided on how to teach freehand drawing courses to interior design students.
Interior Design, from the professional perspective, is about making specific spaces functional, aesthetical in a comfortable and healthy layout for the end-users. Interior design is creating a creative artistic environment with restricted parameters of materiality where people can define their lives. While users are essential motivators to identify such spaces to transform them into places. With the expanding knowledge base, the interior design project evolves in favor of its users. The educational sector plays a pragmatic role in training future designers to accomplish the ultimate setting, taking into consideration the users as a vital success of the interior design neglected over time from the design process. The programming phase is only the way to create such mapping for interior spaces, yet it includes a large number of features that need organization in terms of data and process. Problem: Interior Design is a creation of space, with a focus on materiality, experience, and creativity, to not only build the people’s environment but trying to change their behaviors and enforce positive cultural alterations; Fixing a societal problem beyond the brief to encompass the consideration of people’s positive experiences in space; Alluded to an approach to interior design that addresses the senses, in that human’s touch, feel, and look. The vast amount of research available to them would benefit their designs but need a systematic process. Interior design should include bespoke features to enhance the users’ life and cannot just be a style applied repeatedly to spaces. Making a positive contribution to society should be the main target of interior design. Creating a design process, taking into consideration the different aspects, and connecting them overall, within the interior design learning process, is the main problem of this paper. Goal: The main goal of this paper is to reach the ideal programming aspects in a sequential process that would contribute to the nexus aspects of the interior design learning methodology. Reaching the research-based design is the decisive role of the educators to foster the students’ knowledge, shape their skills, and add the perceptual dimension to their designs. The programming samples would be the result of applying the programming process to the design of their projects while considering the importance of each of them. Methodology: This paper will follow the analytic approach to identify the programming process as the leading tool throughout steady steps: the substantial experience (data collection), the reflective observation (analysis and schematic design), and the abstract conceptualization (design development to solutions). The teaching strategies to facilitate conveying the experience to the students should play a vital role. Each of the steps needs an analytical description in terms of importance and effectiveness. The results should create a sort of connectivity between all the programming aspects as a basis for the research-based interior design.
Interior lighting design is the hidden element that contributes unconsciously to users’ moods, perceptions, and emotions. The light is available so that no one thinks about its source or even about its power to support human tasks. At the time of the recent pandemic and the lockdown force, effectively, almost all humans stay indoors. The interior lighting designer’s role – a specialty within interior design – raises such timing to ease the users’ long days and nights within a fixed interior layout. The boredom and repetitive interior reduce productivity and life-fighting edges. Therefore, creative solutions could enhance the interiority of humans’ homes. The lighting design tools to create interiors that follow the functions are no more the common task. It should go beyond the physical functionality to the psychological and the diversity in these functions within the same interior settings. The lighting scenes, the adjustment in the color temperature of lights, and the colored lights should give hands in the proposed solutions that will alter the users’ interiority to consent to the different tasks in the same places. The traditional lighting design in interiors deals mainly with the luminaires selection, the distribution, and the direction of light adds to the intensity appropriate to the functions. Hence, this paper evaluates multiple lighting scenes to advise the users with the proper layouts that fit the type of tasks in-homes, as it becomes an interior for multiple types of activities - residential, private social, and workspaces.