Visual Dictionary of Interior Architecture

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-136163-4.

interiorsforumscotland.com

The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design, 2015

Interior design is about the integration of numerous interior elements and products that are chosen to satisfy various spatial requirements. The unity of all surfaces, materials and products create an integral architectural character and language. Important architects of the modern period believed in "total work of art" and they felt responsible for the design and overseeing of the building's totality: shell, accessories, furnishings, and landscape. Even if they were industrial products, the same design language shaped them. Today, different designers design most of the components that shape the built environment. In other words, design and manufacturing phases of "space" and "spatial components" are considered as independent processes. On the other hand, space has contextual determinants and every specific interior is fed with different contextual data. Therefore, the most important requirement of today's design approaches is to create a new design language in relation with new technologies and new ways of living without neglecting the local and cultural differences that create architectural identity and sense of place. In this paper, contemporary design approaches will be discussed through examples in order to evaluate the role of spatial components in interior design.

by John Coles and Naomi House

I am not the author of this book, you may download for academic uses.

2008

2017

This paper chronicles the evolution of Interior Architecture through the lens of the Interior Architecture programme at Oxford Brookes University. Interior Architecture as a proper academic field originated from architecture but with a specific scope-to investigate and design the experiential/spatial conditions of buildings. This led it to be influenced significantly by other disciplines in regard to methodology, pedagogy, and even the subject matter of the programme. Whereas naturally it shares most of its critical framework with architecture and interior design, and draws upon similar theoretical contributions and practices, Interior Architecture incorporates findings and methodologies from other disciplines such as behavioural psychology, social studies, and research on perception. It has now consolidated into an independent academic field, able to offer significant insights on design strategies for people in the built environment, which can be applied meaningfully back into architecture studies. Specifically, Interior Architecture at Oxford Brookes has placed the experience of space as the subject matter in the built environment through innovative design briefs, and academic publication. The design work and research produced by its students and staff is turning into a compressive methodology of design. This incorporates the idea that programmes of occupation are a-priori design strategies, conducted with an appreciation of variable spatial conditions and perceptive atmospheric qualities.

[...] it deals with interior architectural design that is a key topic in architectural practice even if it is a neglected subject in most schools of architecture nowadays as “interior design is often misunderstood as only a kind of decoration”. On the contrary, as Prof. Chen Yi states, “we believe that interior design and architectural design were indistinguishable since the beginning of the civilization”. As a matter of fact interior space is “the space enclosed by walls, wherever they are arranged or configured. It is primary and characterizing of every architectural work, it is addressed to the fruition by whom it is going through, crossing or stopping; […] it has a meaning clearly distinct from that of the other figurative arts…”. [...] this publication deals with Chinese architects from Tongji and it looks forward to deepening the cultural relationships between Chinese and Italian architectural debates that also is one of the aims of the editing this book series. Before expressing an opinion about the published projects in the book I think that it must be understood the social, economic and social context that generated them.

The paper is an attempt to place interior architecture as a separate field for research in order to support the field's body of knowledge. The concept of the field itself is investigated, as is the various concepts of research applicable to this field.