Interiority

Ephemeral Domesticity: Campsite

Julia Capomaggi — 2024-01-29

The fleeting nature of life and the resulting transformation of inhabited spaces into artefacts that take on different socio-spatial forms through temporary shelters such as cabins, tents, and trailers is a major theme explored particularly in the 1960s and 1970s that introduced the concept of time into the formation of transient communities. This article focuses on the issue of the endless interior generated by transience in group living linked to tourism and recreational leisure, specifically elective nomadism, which represents alternative models of colonisation and the relationship between habitat and nature. Although the origins of these ideas can be traced back to projects and manifestos of experiments in utopian cities, some aspects of these avant-garde principles can be seen in communities linked to vacation, leisure, and free time today. Lastly, the campsites in Girona serve as an example and case study where these theoretical principles have been spontaneously implemented and are now subject to regulation. They have shaped a model where the city is internalised and transformed into an expanded model of domesticity.

SupaVenezia From SupaStore: Between Art, Commerce, and Spatial Dynamics

Ayman Kassem — 2024-01-29

This exhibition review reflects on the spatial and curatorial concepts, interior spatial qualities, and precedent design processes of SupaVenezia, which was held at the A plus A Gallery in Venice from 31 August to 25 September 2022. It examines the design of the display system at the exhibition while addressing issues pertaining to domestic, participatory, and white-cube settings. The review explores the intersection of art, commerce, spatial, and displays design dynamics in relation to the manifestation of the SupaStore’s initial curatorial philosophy. Additionally, it reflects on the variety of spatial experiences provided and the manner in which a small-scale local gallery behaves and survives in the shadows of a monumental event—the 59th International Art Exhibition of Biennale Arte 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani and produced by La Biennale di Venezia 2022—while drawing comparative reflections with similar scenarios such as Berlin Biennale and Documenta in Kassel.

The House I'd Like to Have: Women's Spatial Cultures, Design, and Aesthetic in 20th Century Italy

Francesca Romana Forlini — 2024-01-29

"Has any woman ever designed architectures in the past centuries? You may ask her to design a hut, not even a temple! She can't. She is foreign to architecture." These infamous words of Benito Mussolini (1927) reflected the widespread sexism of the Fascist regime and prompted a silent wave of dissent pioneered by women intellectuals, architects, writers, and journalists in the early 20th century. They advocated for a valuable feminine contribution to Italian architecture and their story is still partially unknown by architectural historians today. This essay tackles Italian women's spatial design and aesthetics during the regime, a period in which they kept silently operating within the built environment as professional architects with unbuilt projects and as amateur designers inside their homes. These circumstances, as argued here, determined the emergence of a feminine and feminist approach to architectural design and criticism that transcended the male boundaries of high culture, reinforced by the Fascist regime and in line with the modernist binary understanding of taste and cultural architectural production. The latter is studied through the lens of cultural domesticity, a theoretical framework that merges cultural sociology, feminism, and architecture. By focusing on Italian women's lived experiences and unconventional design approaches, this study ultimately looks at the consolidation of feminine aesthetics and how it informed women's spatial design as it keeps challenging the boundaries of architectural history.

Buah Buton in Traditional House Interior: Representation of Women's Role and Influence

Fakhrur Razi Maamor — 2024-01-29

Buah buton is a three-dimensional wooden carving as an interior object in the traditional house of Negeri Sembilan. The purpose of this article is to establish a link between the buah buton in Luak Tanah Mengandung, Negeri Sembilan and the position of women who connect the legacy and leadership in the Adat Perpatih, a customary community law, and how such a relationship manifests itself within the traditional house's interior. The function of buah buton was revealed through fieldwork and interviews with community leaders, which were then combined into a narrative that represented the function of buah buton. The findings revealed the presence of buah buton design hung in certain positions in certain houses, mainly in women-dominated areas. The design and position of the buah buton represent the concept of feminism, which refers to the nature and character of women applied to the visual shape and position of the subject. This aspect is associated with the house’s interior, such as the mother's house and tiang seri, which represents the unique characteristics of women and their influence in the Adat Perpatih. Through exploration of the psychological and cultural aspects of the mother's house within Adat Perpatih, this article intends to gain a deeper understanding of the societal framework. This inquiry will shed light on the distinct ways in which these environments shape and reflect women’s pivotal roles and influences in their society.

Typology and Interiority of Cohousing in Europe 1981–2021

Virginia De Jorge-Huertas — 2024-01-29

This work aims to research the connection between cohousing architecture and interiority. For this purpose, the analyses are structured in two phases. The first consists of the characterisation and identification of underlying typologies of European cohousing projects in the last three decades, 1981–2022. The second phase consists of the connection between the interiority concepts (in terms of planimetry, typology, spatial syntax, and interior spaces) and the cohousing architecture in the case studies selected from the first phase, which made it possible to compare cohousing projects and propose future strategies. The research identifies a typology with two clusters of cohousing projects of greater/lesser age and scale. The comparative analysis of the two selected projects, Malta Cohousing (Helsinki) and Schönholzer Strasse (Berlin), provides architectural proposals for compacting the shared and distributed interior spaces on the second floor of the projects, thus making them more usable and finding the points of greatest visibility at the perimeters or in the centre of the interior floor layouts. These proposals could reveal various possibilities for the design of spaces in terms of dynamic forms of the body-space relationships that characterise them and contribute to their improvement and the understanding of the functioning of the occupation and use of the different spaces, whether individual, collective, public, or private. These results fill the existing gap in the literature in terms of a better understanding and analysis of the connection between cohousing architecture and the concept of interiority while also contributing to stakeholders and policymakers in future decision-making.

Exploring Parametric Concepts and Principles for Furniture and Interior Design

Klawkanlayaphon Sawatmongkhonkul — 2024-01-29

This research explores the incorporation of parametric models into the algorithmic design process, specifically focusing on furniture and interior design. It presents a case of an experimental equation centred around a waffle honeycomb structure. The first part of the article reviews three decades of literature on parametric design, which comprises its background, history, theory, and essential concepts and applications. The second part investigates the parametric design process to uncover its potential for interior design applications. The combination of parametric equations with algorithms through the utilisation of multiple steps, such as conditional loops, efficiently designs intricate systems. An intricate system in parametric design comprises various input parameters, rules, mathematical algorithms, and conditional relationships that interact to generate design solutions. This approach is potentially applied in various design scenarios to respond to specific criteria and constraints, facilitating flexibility, adjustments to potential outcomes, and achieving a high level of detail in the final result. This research primarily concentrates on the identification of parametric design methodologies and the utilisation of parametric equations in crafting furniture and interior designs featuring waffle structures. Furthermore, it introduces a versatile parametric design approach that can be applied to various design tasks, highlights the evolutionary trajectory of parametric design, and offers insights into its potential impact on future design practices. The exploration of the parametric method enhances the understanding of complex design approaches in a more accessible and innovative manner with practical applicability.

Interiority Across the Scales

Paramita Atmodiwirjo — 2024-01-29

The understanding of interior gradually has shifted from the enclosed spatiality defined by physical boundaries to the extended notion of interiority as a dynamic condition. Understanding interior becomes more complex as dynamic conditions make it possible for interior to extend across boundaries, time, scales and typologies. This issue of Interiority presents various inquiries on the emergence of interiority and interior conditions across different scales. The articles demonstrate a wide range of perspectives on interior beyond the conventional notion of interior scale and typology, mainly addressing the domestic environment and its dynamic variants and elements. These cases acknowledge the dynamic aspects of interior architecture, which opens possibilities for various interpretations of interior, locating it within a broader understanding of social, political and cultural contexts. The emergence of interior conditions across scales calls for multidimensional thinking and multidisciplinary approaches in interior research and practice.