Our Chapter President-Elect, Michael Moore, gives us a sneak peak at his upcoming book, The Windows & Drapery Guide & Study Book:
In a teaching career that spans 25 years, part-time, and that includes 6 different schools in Montreal and Ottawa, one course that has been pretty much a constant in the Interior Design classes I have taught, is FF&E. Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment - originally an accounting term - has become synonymous with that function of interior design that governs and includes all specifications for everything from flooring to furniture, wallpaper to window coverings. And in having taught it over many years, I have always been hard pressed to find or track down a student textbook that was both illustrative and instructional.
Thus my intention to produce just such a book. My current course is taught over 60 hours of class time. Ten days at 6 hours a day.......it is rather intense coverage of the facets and features of typical residential window construction (sash, double-hung, awning, sliding, etc) and the ways and manners of creating window coverings that are both practical solutions, ensuring privacy and light control along with providing visual interest and beauty.
As noted in the Foreword, all images contained will either be photographs of projects which I have completed over the years (for reasons of copyright) or hand-drawn sketches and renderings or CAD drawings that I have done.
Most all the sketches and renderings are the work of one of my outstanding students on a special visa from China. Haiyun Duan, in his early thirties, was an acknowledged and accomplished artist in China prior to seeking this program opportunity. He never failed to amaze me when he would, in a flash, whip up some very complex visualization in the classroom.
Each section of the book will end with an exercise/assignment component so that the student more easily learns the core of the section. And just as importantly, exercises will cover, in great detail, the methods used to calculate yardages for fabrics and related window covering materials. Detailed costing projection methods will form a primary part of the exercises.
Thus, a student who completes all the exercises, who really uses the book, will be a terrific asset to an employer from the outset. Completion of the book is planned for early to
mid-Spring.
-Michael Moore ASID, APDIQ, IDC, CGD, RGD
