544C.1 Definitions.
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. “”Board”” means the interior design examining board established pursuant to this chapter.
2. “”Building equipment”” means any mechanical, plumbing, electrical, or structural components, including a conveyance, designed for or located in a building or structure.
3. “”Conveyance”” means an elevator, dumbwaiter, vertical reciprocating conveyor, escalator, or other motorized vertical transportation system.
4. “”Department”” means the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing.
5. “”Direct supervision and responsible charge”” means a registered interior designer’s personal supervisory control of work of which the registered interior designer has detailed professional knowledge. In respect to preparing interior technical submissions, “”direct supervision and responsible charge”” means that the registered interior designer has the exercising, directing, guiding, and restraining power over the preparation of the interior technical submission, and exercises professional judgment in all matters embodied in the interior technical submission. “”Direct supervision and responsible charge”” does not mean reviewing the interior technical submission prepared by another person unless the reviewer actually exercises supervision and control and is in responsible charge of the interior technical submission.
6. “”Interior alteration or construction project”” means a project for an interior space or area within a proposed or existing building or structure, including construction, modification, renovation, rehabilitation, or historic preservation, that involves changing or altering any of the following:
a. The design function or layout of rooms.
b. The state of permanent fixtures or equipment.
7. “”Interior nonstructural element”” means an interior design element that does not require structural bracing and that is not load-bearing according to adopted code.
8. “”Interior technical submission”” means a design, drawing, specification, study, or other technical report or calculation that establishes the scope of an interior alteration or construction project including a description of standards.
9. a. “”Registered interior design”” means the design of interior spaces as a part of an interior alteration or construction project including the preparation of interior technical submissions relating to space planning, finish materials, furnishings, fixtures, and equipment, and the preparation of documents relating to interior construction that does not affect the engineered systems of a building. “”Registered interior design”” includes all of the following:
(1) Programming, planning, pre-design analysis, and conceptual design of interior nonstructural elements, including but not limited to the selection of materials, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, but not building equipment.
(2) Alteration or construction of interior nonstructural elements and any interior technical submissions related to such alteration or construction.
(3) Preparation of a physical plan of space within a proposed or existing building or structure including all of the following:
(a) Determinations of circulation systems or patterns.
(b) Determinations of the location of exit requirements based on occupancy loads.
(c) Assessment and analysis of interior safety factors to comply with building codes related to interior nonstructural elements.
(4) Application of building codes, fire codes, and accessibility standards, including but not limited to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as applicable to interior technical submissions for interior nonstructural elements.
(5) Rendering of designs, plans, drawings, specifications, contract documents, or other interior technical submissions and administration of interior nonstructural element construction and contracts relating to nonstructural elements in interior alteration or construction of a proposed or existing building or structure.
b. “”Registered interior design”” does not include any of the following:

§544C.1, REGISTERED INTERIOR DESIGNERS 2

(1) Services that constitute the practice of professional engineering or professional architecture, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
(2) The making of changes or additions to any of the following:
(a) The structural system of a building, including changing the building’s live or dead load on the structural system.
(b) The building envelope, including exterior walls, exterior wall coverings, exterior wall openings, exterior windows and doors, architectural trim, balconies and similar projections, bay and oriel windows, roof assemblies and rooftop structures, and glass and glazing for exterior use in both vertical and sloped applications in buildings and structures.
(c) The mechanical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, electrical, vertical transportation, fire sprinkler, or fire alarm systems.
(d) Means of egress systems, except for the exit access component.
(e) Construction that materially affects life safety systems pertaining to fire safety of structural elements or the fire protection of structural elements, smoke evacuation and compartmentalization systems, or fire-rated vertical shafts in multi-story structures.
(f) Changes of building use to occupancies not already allowed by the current building. (g) The construction classification of the building or structure according to the
international building code.
10. “”Registered interior designer”” means a person registered under this chapter.
2005 Acts, ch 104, §2; 2006 Acts, ch 1177, §45; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §1699; 2023 Acts, ch 20,
§1, 2; 2023 Acts, ch 119, §45
Section amended and editorially internally renumbered