Reading Room/Writing Roam: Interior Design as Critical Commentary

Abstract

This paper discusses a final year course in which students are invited to consider design through reading, writing and making. It has two main goals, which are research and critical reflection. During the course students research a number of words/concepts closely associated with architectural design, to determine their breadth and meanings as they are used in other disciplines such as medicine, philosophy, women's studies and literature. The chosen words particularly focus on the notion/act of adding-to, embellishing, or inserting into/onto existing conditions. Since the words are researched through disciplines other than interior and architecture, new meanings or interpretations can be used to formulate architectural propositions about space, surface, form and so on, thus extending our knowledge and understanding of design