On the Nature of Public Interiority

Article Sidebar

PDF

Main Article Content

Issue Vol. 3 No. 1 (2020)
Published Jan 24, 2020
Section Articles
Article downloads 1537
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v3i1.72
Submitted : Sep 30, 2019 | Accepted : Dec 20, 2019
Liz Teston
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
eteston@utk.edu

Abstract

This essay explores the intersection between interiority, urbanism, and human perception. I view interiority as a condition of the senses rather than an indoor place. Revelations of interiority can be discovered within the urban realm, in public spaces, and in intimate interior conditions. I am especially interested in “public interiority” or these cases of interiority that can be found in exterior urban places. Understanding interiority as a perceived condition grounds the built environment in phenomenology, varied human experiences, and everyday conditions. Herein, I begin with an ontology of interiority, which focuses on various ways of perceiving the nature of things—phenomenology, structuralism, and object-oriented-ontology (OOO). From there, I will analyse a taxonomy of public interiorities, including various strains of form-based, programmatic, atmospheric, and psychological public interiorities. Using real-world examples from my previous research in Bucharest, Romania, New York, and Knoxville, Tennessee as well as well-established examples in art and design, I will then analyse various urban experiences of interiority, and the way built conditions shape experience. In this way, I will bring the interior to the city.

Keywords: public interiority, phenomenology, atmospheres, urbanism, ontology

Article Details

How to Cite
Teston, L. (2020). On the Nature of Public Interiority. Interiority, 3(1), 61–82. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v3i1.72
Author Biography

Liz Teston, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

Liz Teston is an associate professor in the School of Interior Architecture at University of Tennessee. Her area of research includes the politics of design, and the impact of memory and cultural identity on everyday design contexts.

References

Ahmed, S. (2006a). Orientations: Toward a queer phenomenology. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 12(4), 543–74. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2006-002

Ahmed, S. (2006b). Queer phenomenology: Orientations objects others. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Benjamin, W. (1999). The Arcades Project. (H. Eiland & K. McLaughlin, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1982).

Betsky, A. (2017, October 18). The Triple O play. Architect Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.architectmagazine.com/design/the-triple-o-play_o

Campos, A., & Schneiderman, D. (Eds.). (2018). Interiors beyond architecture. New York: Routledge.

Colomina, B., & Bloomer, J. (2007). Proceedings from symposium held at Princeton University School of Architecture on Sexuality & Space, March 10-11, 1990. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Diner, E. (2019, November 14). If the Snake / Okayama Art Summit. Flash Art. Retrieved from https://flash---art.com/2019/11/if-the-snake-okayama-art-summit/

Ebert, C. (2018). Proceedings fromInterior—Inferior—In Theory? Contemporary Positions in Interior Design Theory. Berlin: BAU International. http://www.interior-theory.org/Interior_inferior_in%20theory_Book%20of%20abstracts.pdf

Guyer, P. (2011). Kant and the philosophy of architecture. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 69(1), 7-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6245.2010.01442.x

Hall, E.T. (1969). The hidden dimension. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Harman, G. (2018). Object-oriented ontology: A new theory of everything. London: Penguin UK.

Harman, G. (2012). The well-wrought broken hammer: Object-oriented literary criticism. New Literary History, 43(2), 183–203. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23259371

Heidegger, M., Macquarrie, J., & Robinson, E. (1962). Being and time. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Kerr, D. (2016, April 8). What Is object-oriented ontology? A quick-and-dirty guide to the philosophical movement sweeping the art World. Artspace. Retrieved from http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/the_big_idea/a-guide-to-object-oriented-ontology-art-53690

Koolhaas, R. (2002). Junkspace. October, 100 (Spring 2002), 175–190. http://www.jstor.org/stable/779098

Lally, S. (2014). The air from other planets: A brief history of architecture to come. Baden: Lars Muller Publishers.

Ljubanovic, K. (Interviewer), & Cormier, B. (Interviewee). (2016). Why it’s time to reimagine public spaces using ‘interior urbanism.’ Globe and Mail. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/why-its-time-to-reimagine-public-spaces-using-interior-urbanism/article29544382/

Madlener, A. (2018, December 28). Andrés Jaque offers an approach to intersectional architecture. Archpaper. https://archpaper.com/2018/12/andres-jaque-intersectional-architecture/

Manaugh, G. (2016). A burglar’s guide to the city. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

McCarthy, C. (2005). Toward a definition of interiority. Space and Culture, 8(2), 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331205275020

Munro, C. F. (1987). Semiotics, aesthetics, and architecture. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 27(2), 115–128. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjaesthetics/27.2.115

Olivares, J. (2010). Outdoor offices: Research and development project. Retrieved from http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/3746-outdoor-office

Olivares, J. (2016). Room for a daybed. Retrieved from http://www.jonathanolivares.com

Osborne, P. (2015). Problematizing disciplinarity, transdisciplinary problematics. Theory, Culture & Society, 32(5–6), 3–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276415592245

Poot, T., de Vos, E., and van Acker, M. (2019). Thinking beyond dualities in public space: The unfolding of urban interiority as a set of interdisciplinary lenses. Interiors, 9(3), 324–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/20419112.2019.1622235

Ross, K. (2000). Rimbaud and the transformation of social space. Yale French Studies, 97, 36–54. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2903213

Scarry, E. (1988). The body in pain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sennett, R. [Harvard GSD] (2016, April 26). Interiors and interiority [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/hVPjQhfJfKo

Simmel, G. (2007). Rome. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(7–8), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407084466

Teston, L. (2017). ’…and though she be but little, she is fierce!’ The transient micro-urbanisms of protest architecture. MONU: Small Urbanism, 27, 3–8.

Teston, L. (2018a). Politicizing the Interior. In G. Marinic (Ed.) Interior architecture theory reader (pp. 59–66). New York: Routledge.

Teston, L. (2018b, May). Public interiority: An urban experience, independent from architectural interiors. In Carola Ebert (Chair), Interior-Inferior-In Theory? Contemporary Positions in Interior Design Theory Conference. Presentation conducted at BAU International, Berlin, Germany.

Weinthal, L. (Ed.). (2011). Toward a new interior: An anthology of interior design theory. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Whyte, W. (Producer & Director). (2007). The social life of small urban spaces [Motion picture]. USA: Direct Cinema.

Zevi, B. (1957). Architecture as space. New York: Horizon Press.

Author(s) retain the copyright of articles published in this journal, with first publication rights granted to Interiority.