About RIDA Project

The idea of setting up a licensing system for Hong Kong interior designers was first proposed in the early 1990s.  At that time, a number of other professions such as chiropractors and Chinese medicine practitioners were in various stages of establishing a licensing system, and it was felt that time was ripe for interior designers to have the same thing.  However, the cost of pursuing this project proved prohibitive, and interior designers chose instead to work on uniting industry professionals and building consensus through the newly established Hong Kong Interior Design Association (HKIDA).

In 2005, the HKIDA initiated RIDA—the Registered Interior Designers Association project, the objective of which is to promote the interior design profession and gain the support of the government as well as the general public for the establishment of a registration system for Hong Kong Interior Designers.  In October 2007, Horace Pan, vice-chairman of the HKIDA and the RIDA taskforce chairman, succeeded in getting an internal research grant from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to carry out a background study to examine the feasibility of setting up an interior design registration system in Hong Kong.  The study examined regulations and legislations for the interior design profession in Europe, the USA and Asia, as well as gauge the views of Hong Kong interior design professionals and key stakeholders via interviews and focus group meetings. Phase 2 of the RIDA project took place in 2009 with a series of seminars on interior design professionalisation. Interior design experts from Europe, the United States, China and Taiwan came to Hong Kong to speak about the 3Es of the profession: Education, Experience and Examination. The seminars are intended to inform and educate the public about the development of interior design in other countries, as well as the roles and responsibilities of interior designers. Phase 3 of the RIDA project is entitled Survey on the 2Es of Interior Design in Hong Kong—Education and Experience. It is the first comprehensive survey of the interior design profession in Hong Kong and the most thorough study out of all the design disciplines ever attempted. This survey is sponsored by the Hong Kong Interior Design Association with funding by the government’s DesignSmart Initiative, and is administered by the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The survey took place between December, 2010 and September, 2011.