The President, Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN), Ms. Jacqueline Aki, has advised interior designers in Nigeria willing to advance the profession to embrace emotive design and artificial intelligence (AI).
She stated this during the IDAN celebration of the 2025 World Interiors Day, themed; “Designing with Emotion; Building with Intelligence,” in Lagos.
In her opening remark, she urged interior designers to lean towards three powerful intersections, which are “Emotive design—the ability to create spaces that connect deeply with human emotion. Not just beautiful spaces, but healing, liberating and uplifting spaces.”
According to her, “Designers must have lived experience, which is understanding how design is received, inhabited, and remembered. How does a space feel at 8 a.m. versus at 8 p.m.? How it supports joy, inclusion and dignity.”
She stated that AI is not a replacement for creativity, but a collaborator, aggregator and a tool to extend thinking, not override it.
“The challenge before us is to integrate intelligence—human and machine—with emotional and ethical clarity. To ensure that technology serves human-centred design, not the other way around.
“Today is more than a date on the calendar. It is a global affirmation of the value of our work— the unseen hands, the thinking minds, the empathetic hearts behind the spaces where people live, heal, gather, and grow.
“Our theme this year, “Designing with Emotion; Building with Intelligence,” could not be more timely. It asks us to consider not only what we design, but how and why. It challenges us to create with empathy, to build with insight, and to lead with the awareness that our work has consequences—social, cultural, psychological, and environmental.”
