
The green design of a future home is no longer the domain of the home designer and the interior designer.
It’s now the domain, says Chris Wilson, the creative director of The Green Company, which is currently working with several major brands.
The Green Designers, a division of the Green Design Institute, was founded in 2006 by Wilson, an architecture and interior design graduate from the University of Arizona.
Wilson has been a designer for the past two decades, but he has been particularly influenced by the architectural and engineering worlds.
“The big things that I see that are important to the designers in the world right now are not things that you can just pick up at a store,” Wilson says.
“They’re things that have to be learned in the process of design, and I think that’s where the Green Company comes in.”
It started with a series of videos that Wilson and his students made, where they asked designers in their respective industries about their preferences.
The videos went viral, and Wilson, who is also a certified Green Designer, has since received a grant from the Green Foundation to help further his work.
“There are so many design disciplines that we don’t have to study to become an architect,” Wilson explains.
“We just have to learn about them.”
It’s not a bad strategy.
“You could get into the design of any given house and be doing all of the same things, but you’re going to end up with a design that’s a little bit more abstract than a traditional house,” Wilson adds.
“But if you take a design-led approach and you just take it for what it is, then it becomes much more accessible.”
Wilson says he was drawn to the Green Companies’ approach because it was one of the few ways that design can be more accessible.
“I think people are more comfortable now than they were a decade ago,” Wilson continues.
“For me, it was a great way to start learning more about design and also have something that was more accessible and less technical.”
He explains that the videos were also useful for him to be able to connect with a wide audience, including architects, interior designers, and engineers.
“This is something that’s going to make a huge difference in the way people design houses,” he says.
What’s in it for the Green companies?
According to Wilson, The Green Companies has a few different advantages over the traditional home designer.
For one, the companies has the ability to offer custom designs.
Wilson says that if a house needs more than just a basic green theme, the company can customize the home to accommodate that.
“Most of our customers are designers,” Wilson said.
“If they want something a little more complex, or if they want a little different color scheme or a little better lighting, we can take that design and create a whole house that is in-keeping with their personality and their personality type.”
The Green companies also has a larger audience than the typical home designer because they are able to offer their services at a lower cost than traditional homes.
“A lot of people are trying to sell themselves to the market by designing houses,” Wilson explained.
“And the traditional house builder doesn’t have that same ability to sell to the general public.”
In addition, Wilson says the companies offers its customers a range of services.
“Our services include design-based training and consulting, design-related workshops, and more,” he explains.
While Wilson says there are a lot of things that can go wrong with a home design, “I’m a firm believer in making a design based on what people want.”
Wilson also says that a Green company can also offer a product that can benefit a lot more people than a home designer can.
“People that don’t really have much experience in the design field have this misconception that a home is just for them, and that it’s only for them to do things,” Wilson points out.
“That’s not the case at all.
It can be used by anybody who has a design background, including anyone who doesn’t know anything about design, even if they are an architect.”
What does Wilson hope his company can do for the future?
Wilson believes that The Green designers will continue to evolve their service offerings.
“One of the things that we want to do is to continue to be more and more open,” he said.
In addition to designing houses, Wilson has also designed several restaurants, bars, and hotels, as well as a few homes.
He hopes that the Green company will grow in popularity and that he can help his clients find a way to make money by working with them.
“To be successful, I think it’s going, and the business model will be to expand as more and the more clients we can get,” Wilson predicts.
“At the end of the day, we’re all doing the same thing.”