Thinking inside the box

interiors forum scotland 1^st and 2^nd march 2007

WHAT'S IN A CANON?

Suzie ATTIWILL

School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University

Abstract

A canon can be defined as a collection of works deemed significant for a particular practice at a point in time; as a repository of those works and as a transmitter of this knowledge through images and words. Writing on the architectural canon, Miriam Gusevich observes that ‘the significance and status of a building as architecture is not dependent on some pre-established set of attributes, on some essential features, but on its status as a cultural object established through critical discourse’ [1]. Are there canonical interiors; spaces that have influenced the practice of interior design more than others? Or does the nature of this multidisciplinary practice make a canon, as it is known from architecture, impossible? Undesirable, even?   The focus of this paper is a forum titled What’s in a canon? The state of interior design at the beginning of the 21^st century. The forum was held in Melbourne, Australia on 17 October 2006 and invited editors of Australia’s design media, academics, graduates and interior design practitioners to respond to the provocation: ‘What’s in a canon?’ The question had two potential readings in this context: to question and evaluate the value of a canon for interior design; and as an invitation to identify examples of interior design which are significant at this point in time to the practice of interior design. It should be noted that there was not an underlying assumption that there should be a canon. This paper will analyse the debates, discussion and interiors offered at the forum. In the process, it will consider the design of interiors where the concept of interior is re-posed and in so doing, pose the question of what a history and theory of interior design could be and what kind of platform for practice might be produced. It is hoped that it will provide impetus for new ways of thinking and designing interiors.

Keywords: canon, interior, design history/ theory, architecture, practice

References

[1] Gusevich, M. The Architecture of Criticism: A Question of Autonomy. In Kahn, A., ed. Drawing, Building, Text, p.11 (Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1991).

[2] Deleuze, G. What is a dispositif?. In Armstrong, T. trans. Michel Foucault. Philosopher, p. 164 (Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hertfordshire, 1992).

[3] Downton, P. The Canon: a site of architectural epistemology. In Firm(ness) commodity de-light:: questioning the canons, p. (Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, 1998).

[4] Gusevich, M. p.11 (1991).

[5] Downton, P. p. ? (1998).

[6] Downton, P. Theory’s Cupboard: myths of knowing, form, memes and models. In Ostwald, M. and Moore, R.J. eds. Re-Framing Architecture: Theory, Science and Myth, p. (Archadia Press, Sydney, 2000).

[7] Deleuze, G. p. 164 (1992).

[8] Rice, C. Rethinking histories of the interior. The Journal of Architecture, 2004, 9(3), 275-287.

[9] Taylor, M. and Preston, J. eds. Intimus. Interior Design Theory Reader, p. 6 (Wiley-Academy, Great Britain, 2006).

[10] Bourriaud, N. Relational Aesthetics, Trans. Pleasance, S. and Woods, F. (Les Presses Du Réel, France, 2002).

[11] Pile, J. A History of Interior Design, p. 9 (Laurence King, London, 2000).

[12] Deleuze, G. Postscript on the Societies of Control. In Leach, N. ed. Rethinking Architecture. A reader in cultural theory, p. 309 (Routledge, London, 1997).

[1][1] The speakers were:

Cameron Bruhn, editor, Artichoke. Interior Design and Architecture. The Design Institute of Australia publication.

Peter Geyer, strategic director, Geyer. Established in 1970s, Geyer is Australia’s oldest interior design practice.

David Clark, editor of Vogue Living, a magazine of interior decoration.

Eliza Downes, recent RMIT graduate

Professor Leon van Schaik, academic, curator, writer (author of Design City Melbourne)

Caroline Vains, interior designer, PhD student (UTS, Sydney)

Andrew Mackenzie, editor-in-chief, inside (Australian Design Review) and Architectural Review Australia.

Note: any quotes with out reference are transcriptions from the forum.

Thinking inside the box

interiors forum scotland 1^st and 2^nd march 2007

FROM ORGANISATION TO DECORATION

Graeme BROOKER¹, Sally STONE²

¹Manchester Metropolitan University
²Manchester School of Architecture

Abstract

Interior architecture, interior design and building reuse are very closely linked subjects, all of them deal in varying degrees, with the transformation of a given space, whether that is the crumbling ruins of an ancient building or the drawn parameters of a building proposal. This alteration or conversion is a complex process of understanding the qualities of the given existing building while simultaneously combining these factors with the functional requirements of new users. Traditionally this subject has been associated with interior design/decoration and has been seen as peripheral to the central subject of architecture. Recently several large and high profile projects designed by eminent practices have changed the perception of interior architecture. The study of Interiors is a growing intellectual discipline. Issues of conservation and sustainability have become vital to the development of cities. The reuse of existing buildings is a subject that is central to the evolution of the urban environment. Interior Architecture is beginning to be seen as a serious academic subject, an area of interest in its own right rather than an adjunct of architecture or an expansion of surface decoration. Although, some degree courses have been renamed to reflect the reorientation of the subject, the actual subject of interior architecture has very little theoretical background.

This paper will examine a number of the main theories of interior architecture, interior design and building re-use. It will attempt to assemble the different ideas, from concepts about installation art to issues of urban design. It will consider the problems of conservation and restoration as well as questions of decoration and ornamentation. From this examination, this paper will summarize the position that interior architecture now finds itself and propose an approach for the future of the subject.

Keywords: Interior Architecture, Interior Design, Building Reuse, Remodelling Existing Buildings, Urban Design, Installation Art, Decoration, Design Education.

References

[1]     Irwin, R. Being and Circumstance, Notes Towards a Conditional Art. In Kristine Stiles and Peter Sels (eds), Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, (University of California Press, USA, 1996).

[2]     ibid

[3]     Machado, R, Old Buildings as Palimpsest. Progressive Architecture, pp 46-49. Nov 1976

[4]     Brooker, G. Stone, S. Rereadings. RIBA Publications. 2004

Thinking inside the box

interiors forum scotland 1^st and 2^nd march 2007

THE TAILORED HOME - CREATING AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN COOKIE CUTTER HOUSE

John BROWN University of Calgary

Abstract

The North American residential construction industry is dominated by large land development conglomerates, home building corporations, and big box retail outlets. The cheaply made and thoughtlessly designed houses they produce are like fast food, homogenous and standardized. These houses and neighbourhoods are conceived, marketed and consumed in manners little different from that for handbags, soap or cars. In many ways this situation parallels the impact of the fast food industry on America. Fast food and production housing share a common genesis in the early 20^th Century’s belief in the power of technology to make life better by making it easier. A problem arises, however, because with this ease of use comes a lack of engagement and a corresponding dissolution of the deep relationships that connect the individual to their world. Slow food is an effective option antidote to this problem in the world of food. It promotes a re-engagement with the culture of the table through individual everyday involvement with the selection, preparation and enjoyment of food. Drawing from this precedent, the idea a Slow Home is proposed as an alternative to the fast houses and communities being churned out by the development industry. The Slow Home philosophy fosters a re-engagement with the culture of the house. It creates a more mature role for the homeowner as they assume more responsibility for both the way in which the house is acquired and the manner in which it is lived in. The Tailored Home is a case study application of the Slow Home philosophy. It negotiates the space between the home as mass produced commodity and the home as a one off uniquely designed high end project. It replaces the one off “bespoke” made approach of traditional practice with a mass customization strategy. In clothing, high design is made affordable to a larger number of consumers with factory produced garments that are individually customized through alterations at the point of sale. In the same way, a Tailored Home begins with helping the client find an existing residential property that is the right size, price and location. This property is then tailored to fit with a series of interventions assembled from an edited kit of design strategies.  The process creates an affordable way for individuals at a variety of economic levels to work with a professional designer to assemble their interior domestic world. 

Keywords: all-in design process, design & innovation processes, interdisciplinary, residential interiors, alternatives to suburbia

References

[1] Ford, Edward The Details of Modern Architecture. ( MIT Press, Cambridge, 1990, P. 4).

[2] Schlosser, Eric Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. (Houghton Mifflin Co.,

     Boston, 2001, p. 7).      

[3] Hayden, Dolores Redesigning the American Dream. (WW Norton, New York, 2000, p.54).

[4] Leach, William Country of Exiles: The Destruction of Place in American Life. (New York: Vintage

     Books, 1999, p.13).

[5] Archer, John Architecture and Suburbia: From English Villa to American Dream House 1690-

     2000. (University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, 2005, p. 292).

[6]             Borgmann, Albert Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry.

     (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984, p.51).

[7] Washburn, Katharine and Thornton, John eds. Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip Mining of

     American Culture, ( W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1996, p.15).

[8] Waxman, Nahum ‘Cooking Dumb, Eating Dumb’, In Katharine Washburn and John Thornton eds.,

     Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip Mining of American Culture, ( W.W. Norton & Co., New York,

    1996, p.302).

[9] Archer, John Architecture and Suburbia: From English Villa to American Dream House 1690-

     2000. (University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, 2005, p. 336).

[10] Honoree, Carl In Praise of Slow, (Random House, Toronto, 2004, p.59).

[11] Petrini, Carlo, Available HTTP. http://www.slowfood.com (Accessed on 2006, 1 September).

[12] Borgmann, Albert Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry.

      (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984, p.271).

[13] Honoree, Carl In Praise of Slow, [Random House, Toronto, 2004, p.14].

[14] Archer, John Architecture and Suburbia: From English Villa to American Dream House 1690-

      2000. (University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, 2005, p. 318).

[15] Archer, John Architecture and Suburbia: From English Villa to American Dream House 1690-

       2000. (University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, 2005, p. 350).

Thinking inside the box

interiors forum scotland 1^st and 2^nd march 2007

Hertzian Space:

Differentiating the Modern Interior

Mark BURRY, Mark TAYLOR

Victoria University, Wellington

Abstract

Design practice tends to exclude the generation of a specific interior environment from particular bodies, occupations and activities unless it is deemed to be exceptional – such as in the automotive industry or hostile climatic environments. Rarely are everyday occupational activities elevated to this status but are held within generalised ‘flexile’ space that can accommodate change through the repositioning of furnishings décor and occupational activity. Moreover boundaries or the physical delimitations of space tend to define territories that are based on visual constructions of space.  This paper describes a design studio that investigates the possibility of defining space beyond conventional perceptions of space, movement and interaction. Drawing from recent writing on hertzian space, a condition that transcends physically constructed boundaries, connectedness between overlapping fields of occupation and activity are used to generate architectural form and space. For this studio the inside as interior is described through the lived traces of use, occupation and environment. As such the interior is generated in response to a field of data that affect, interfere and overlap, creating intensities that are responsive to the changing nature of information. For example they engender kinetic response to shifts in activity or occupation. The paper presents hertzian space as exemplified through student design research, and discusses design outcomes that transcend the comfort of everyday practice including new techniques and processes. The pedagogical objectives for this exercise privilege process as a precursor to product, with modelling rather than drawing the methodology for design investigation. For many students there is a large skills-based learning component included when investigating a design space that precludes convention representational techniques, design collaboration and communication between groups.

REFERENCES

[1]        Syncopated space – wireless media shaping human movement and social interaction, Teri Rueb, http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/10/articles/06_page02.html, accessed June 2006.

[2]        Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Tunable Cities, Architectural Design, vol 68, no 11/12, 1998, p 78.

[3]        Michael Hensel and Achim Menges, Differentiation and Performance: Multi-Performance Architectures and Modulated Environments, Architectural Design, vol 76, no 2, 2006, p 60–9.

[4]        Hensel and Menges, Differentiation and Performance , p 61.

[5]        Hensel and Menges, Differentiation and Performance, p 63.

[6]        Sulan Kolotan and Bill MacDonald, Lumping, Architectural Design, vol 72, no 1, 2002, p 79.

[7]        See Mark Burry, Homo Faber, Bob Sheil (ed), Design Through Making, Architectural Design, vol 75, no 4, July/August (2005), pp 30–37.

[8]        See, Burry, J., Maher, A., Burry, M. C., and Taylor, M., Experiments in Sublimation in Design Education, in Design + Research: Project Based Research in Architecture, (Eds)., Clare Newton, Sandra Kaji-O'Grady and Simon Wollan, ISSN: 1449 – 1737, Published in Melbourne, Australia, by the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia, 2003. This volume is available on the web at http://www.arbld.unimelb.edu.au/events/conferences/aasa/papers

[9]        Teri Rueb in conversation with Sabine Breitsameter: http://www.swr.de/swr2/audiohyperspace/engl_version/interview/rueb.html#bio accessed November 2006.

Thinking inside the box

interiors forum scotland 1^st and 2^nd march 2007

 CONSENSUS OR CONFUSION?

Shashi CAAN

Shashi Caan Collective, New York City

INTRODUCTION

“Interiors is a slippery discipline. Among all designed artifacts, Interiors themselves are uniquely ephemeral and hard to define. The practice of Interiors is relatively unregulated. The history of Interiors is patchy and contested. The theoretical basis of Interiors is largely unexplored in comparison to those of other disciplines. How, therefore, might we speculate about the role, validity and purpose of Interiors in the 21st century?” IFS – Thinking Inside The Box: New Visions, New Challenges, New Horizons

This descriptor introducing the questions for the 2007, Interiors Forum Scotland, captures the plight of the Interior Design discipline in the United Kingdom. However, these questions are not just limited to the UK but are pervasive throughout the world and represent the state of affairs for Interior Design today as demonstrated by the participants who came from around the globe. “What is Interior Design?” Why is it necessary? How do we best do it? What constitutes its history, substance, value, content, distinction, theory, practice, etc, are crucial issues that require substantial answers. As Interior Design becomes ever more fashionable and popular with the general public, many of those involved with its education and practice look for ways to distance themselves from the common misconceptions and seek to establish a more intellectually respected, artistic and perhaps more cerebral educational process and practice.This paper, “Consensus or Confusion”, is partly a response to the intense and very full debate which has been provoked by Thinking Inside the Box, ranging from a proposal for re-branding, finding new impetus from the decorative beginnings, legislating what we have, to rethinking the why, what and how. The other part of my response seeks to offer my own point of view as it was influenced and further honed by digesting this diversity of critical thinking. Perhaps the highlight and most encouraging aspect of this debate was the intensity and the focus amongst the educators to consider an Interiors theory that seeks to improve not only the quality and content of education but also to enhance the respect and seriousness for the field. To achieve this many of the presenters saw a need to better define or re-define Interior Design by proposing a new vision, new beginnings or underpinnings and some expressed the desire to re-invent the discipline by broadening its content or by searching for an impetus in other related practices (architecture, furniture design, painting, drawing, sculpture, technology, etc). In this context, the variety of new descriptors proposed for Interior Design, such as Interiors, Interior Environments, Interior Architecture, etc, demonstrated a desire for distance from the title “Interior Design” and all of its connotations as it is reflected in the choice of these new names. It also highlighted the lack of a universal agreement pertaining to existing content or substance of the discipline, which is perhaps one of the reasons for the continued fracturing of the Interior Design discipline and the cause for the ever increasing inter-disciplinary confusion, which brings us back to the fundamental questions that we have to address.

Most importantly, as a holistic discipline, we must quickly strive for a unity of voice and get beyond our self created confusion pertaining to the core of Interior Design. We must strive for a consensus of the most important and fundamental attributes so that we are in a position of being able to articulate why we do what we do and how we do it and why it is so unique and great and show what Interior Designers can best do…design interiors.

Thinking inside the box

interiors forum scotland 1^st and 2^nd march 2007

BUT IS IT INTERIOR DESIGN? CONSIDERING THE INTERVENTION OF THEORY IN INTERIOR DESIGN EDUCATION

Lynn CHALMERS and Susan CLOSE,  

Department of Interior Design, Faculty of Architecture,
University of Manitoba

Abstract

This paper examines the application of interdisciplinary theory to Interior Design education and practice. Specially, it argues that interior designers should use theory to enrich both its disciplinary education and its practice. This argument is built from a dialogue between a two interior design educators, one with a background in cultural analysis and the other in practice, and draws on their common concerns.  To date, there is no actual canon of design theory. Like art and architectural theory most design theory is drawn from interdisciplinary sources that includes pertinent issues such as gender identity, performativity and privacy. Research for a theoretical framework that informs this study includes critical and cultural theorists: Mieke Bal, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin and Michel De Certeau. This study also questions the delimited practice of traditional interior design and resituates it in relation to contemporary design culture. Evidence of this paradigm shift is examined in light of recent work of such design theorists as Guy Julier, Tiiu Vaikla-Poldma, Mark Taylor, Julianne Preston and Elizabeth Grosz. A number of significant questions are considered such as: how and why should the connection made between theory and practice be made, why it is important to have theory in the interior design curriculum and what are some of the key challenges involved in teaching theory to visual thinkers? Theory provides an intellectual framework for Interior Design that affords designers with language and tools to understand and enhance the meaning of their work. The place of theory is significant in both the design process and design education as it encourages both students and practitioners to think critically about the creative design process. It is not enough to merely consider what to make but it is necessary to reflect upon how and why it is made.  The future relevance of design theory is to inform and encourage designers to think about significant concepts related to contemporary society.

Keywords: Interior Design, Cultural Theory, Education and Practice

References

         [1]   Culler, J. Philosophy and Literature: The Fortunes of the Performative  Poetics Today, 2000, 21(3), 48-67.

[2] Bachelard, G. The Poetics of Space (Beacon Press, Boston, 1994). First published as Poetique

     de l’espace (Orion Press, New York, 1964).

[3] Baudrillard, J. The System of Objects. (Verso, London, 1996). Trans. James Benedict. First

     published as Le systeme des objets  (Gallimard, Paris, France, 1968).

[4] Bal, M. Looking In: The Art of Viewing. (G & B Arts International, Amsterdam:, 2001).

[5] Hays, M. Foreward in.Baudrillard, J and Nouvel. J The Singular Objects of Architecture, pp. ix

     (University of Minneapolis Press, Minneapolis, USA, 2002).

[6] Taylor, M. and Preston, J. Intimus: Interior Design Theory Reader (Wiley-Academy, Chichester,

     England, 2006).

[7] de Certeau, M. The Practice of Everyday Life (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984).

         [8]   Culler, J. What is Theory, in Literary Theory, A Very Short Introduction  pp.15. (Oxford University Press,

               Oxford, 1997).

[9] Bal, M. Travelling Concepts in the Humanities. pp.5 (University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2002).

         [10] Tagg, J. Practising Theory: an Interview with Joanne Lukitsh in Grounds of Dispute: Art History, Cultural

                 Politics and the Discursive Field, pp.69 (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1992).

[11] Julier, G. The Culture of Design (Sage, London, 2000).

[12] Vaikla-Poldma, Tiiu. An investigation of learning and teaching processes in an interior design

       class: an interpretive and contextual inquiry (Magill University Unpublished PhD Thesis,

       Montreal, 2003)

[13]. Grosz, E. Space, time and perversion: essays on the politics of bodies  (Routledge, New York,

        1995)

         [14] Butler, J. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, (Routledge, London, 1999)

[15] Benjamin, W. Paris the Capitol of the Nineteenth Century. In The Arcades Project ed Roy Tiedeman

        (Harvard Press Harvard 2002)