CAAD Forum, Ria Bravo, "Fertile Virtuality"

The virtual world extends the disciplinary boundaries of interior design, offering a dynamic, complex realm in which to create experiences. Understandings of interiority can be augmented by concepts of the virtual through new modes of making and experiencing. Examining the virtual nature of interiority, moving past literal VR translations of the built environment, and exploring opportunities to engage virtual space in practice and education can advance our conception of interiority and increase our agency as designers. Another technological advancement benefiting our understanding of the digital-virtual world is the development of artificially intelligent technology. The process and product of artificially-generated images strengthen perceptions of interiority through a tactile and episodic collaged image generation, employing the surrealist acts of interiorization, and exploring our innermost fantasies via misalignments of form and content. Through artificially intelligent imagery, we can realize an architecture exuding patina and growth, and suggestive of inhabitation. Both virtual and artificial space are platforms to explore, investigate, test, and propose novel interior space-making, modes of production, experiences, and alternative modes of practice.

Ria Bravo is an interior and architectural designer with experience in academia and at the world-renowned architecture firms Gensler and Morphosis Architects. Her research interests are rooted in the space between interiors and architecture, questioning the boundaries, spaces, and politics that define these territories. A Nashville native, Ria completed her Bachelor of Science in Interior Design and Master of Architecture degrees at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. During her time at UTK, she served as a graduate research assistant for the Institute for Smart Structures led by Professor James Rose, where she partnered with Local Motors, a 3D printing car company, to expand the capabilities of their large-scale 3D printer. The culmination of this research included a 40-foot 3D-printed sculpture put on display at their manufacturing facility and featured at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, titled Form, Function, Disruption. Her Master of Architecture thesis, “Fascia Domestica,” focused on blurring the distinction between furniture, interiors, and architecture. Continuing this trajectory, her agenda as a practitioner and educator aims to challenge these divisions through design interventions that dissolve the boundaries and give agency to the interior.

This event is part of the CAAD Forum series, hosted by the Center for American Architecture and Design to bring faculty, staff, and students together for informal and inquisitive discussions about ideas relating to architecture and its history, theory, practice, and future. Presentations are followed by time for Q&A, with the option to participate in person or via live webcast.