fall 2005
ARI 320K:
Design III: Interiors
Course Content + Format
This course marks the first semester of concentrated study in the undergraduate sequence of Interior Design. A foundation level studio, the emphasis in Design 3 is on fundamental issues of inhabitation -- complex, temporal relationships between bodies, materials, objects and actions in the design of interior spaces.
The coursework will consist of a set of smaller design projects engaging the scale of the body in conjunction with activities of inhabitation:: a place for bathing, perhaps, or sleeping spaces, for example. Projects will focus upon the perceptual nature of experience, exploring sensory conditions of light, color, sound, touch and temperature as well as spatial conditions such as scale, proportion, proximity, sequence, and view. Students will develop modes for observing and articulating social, material and perceptual experiences through a range of media, and learn to translate these perceptions into implications for design. The focus will be upon full-scale and relational thinking in design, exploring the thickness, tangibility and scale through all drawings and constructions. As such, considerable attention will be paid to materials as THE fundamental consequence in the design of the interior environment.
...I will be asking you a lot of basic questions, seemingly obvious ones, but ones worth asking as we focus our attention on interior design. First of all, what is interior design? Can we define fundamental elements to be concerned with in the design of interiors? space? surfaces? materials? furniture? fabric? What about the body? What defines space? how do we move through it? are contained by it? how are spaces transformed through materiality? light? time? How do we engage each other through in our inhabitation of spaces? What is the difference between spaces and places? Is there a difference?
When does a space become a place?...
Course Objectives
- Hone objective and subjective modes of perception within complex social, cultural and material circumstances.
- Expand the ability to read, document and articulate these perceptions to others.
- Develop an understanding of sensory and spatial implications in design:
color, light, sound, texture, temperature, scale, proportion, proximity, sequence, view etc. - Engage design at the scale of the body and actions of inhabitation
- Explore implications of material, process and structure in the design of objects and spaces.
- Negotiate these circumstances in the design of an interior environment
- Begin to situate the practice of Interior Design through its cultural, historic, technological and professional modes.
Recommended Texts
(provided in course packet)
J.H. Van den Berg:: Things: Four Metabletic Reflections
Georges Perec: Species of Spaces and Other Pieces