and even though it made me guffaw, I started to think what is the difference between Interior Design, Interior Architecture and Architecture?
My (facetious) understanding of Interior Design is examplified by Babs’ book: lots of fru-fru ‘cushion throwing’, ‘Hello’ magazine style articles on celebrities showing off their many knick-knacks, styling that is fashion rather than problem-solving.
My uni’s Interior Architecture course description states: “Interior architecture (also called interior design) is concerned with planning and detailing interior spaces. It considers structure, joinery, lighting, materials and building services in addition to selection of furniture, finishes, fittings and artwork.”
Isn’t that the Architect’s role- to design both the interior and exterior space? to understand how people will use the space? I can see an interior architects role in a building refurbishment, but is it mainly ‘cosmetic’ (for want of a better word)?
That is Interior Decorating, which thanks to TV channels like TLC, HGTV, and DIY, has suddenly become “Design”
That course description you posted is pretty accurate. Int Des, overlaps with Arch, and Arch overlap with Int Des. (And of course there is contempt from both groups toward one another…) Most designers don’t want to be called decorators.
Hoodzy, you’re still getting caught up in terminology.
In the US, at accredited schools, Interior Design, Environmental Design, and Interior Architecture are all the same thing.
Depending on the area of practice, they can fall heavily in Form (Residential Interiors), or very heavy in Function (Commerical furniture/space planning, Retail Design).
There are Interior Designers, for example, that work for commercial furniture companies like Knoll, Herman Miller, etc. They probably aren’t churning out sketches for the latest task chair, but they’re not just in the sample room picking out fabrics, either.
I’m reading “As Little Design as Possible” and D.Rams mentions something (I can’t quite remember the quote) about ‘unhonest’ design trying to trick and seduce people. It goes along the lines of his 10 principles but it concerns the superficiality of bad design.
Maybe the term ‘decorator’ conveys superficiality, so all want to be known as a ‘designer’- like you dont get bank tellers anymore but customer service representatives, and every entry level job is some sort of ‘-manager’ or ‘-associate’.
