The Gaps Between Interior Design and Architecture

Henry Hildebrandt

“ ‘Imaginary’ universes are so much more beautiful than this
stupidly constructed ‘real’ one,” wrote English mathematician
G. H. Hardy, more than 60 years ago.
Hardy was acknowledging the messy business of figuring out the complexity of the world we think we know and live in with the world we don’t fully understand; a world of abstraction involved with the interrelationships of particle theory as the smallest component and seemingly ordered system of the cosmos. The dilemma of modern physics and the more disputed concepts of contemporary metaphysics in explaining our world is, in many ways, similar to the confusion between the terms interior design and interior architecture. Both imply the act of designing within either a building or a space and have been adopted to differentiate unique foci of work of the interior environment. But the free use of the terms and the casual interchangeability of them by both professionals and academics establish a confused state that creates ambivalence in the conceptual framework of this specialized design focus. This is a between and in-between situation producing a disparity of clearly defined roles and services for the comprehensive design of an interior environment; a complexity of space, human experiences, and comfort.
A critical need in both architecture and interior design is to realize that their roles, methodologies, and service expectations are continually evolving within a shifting social, economic, and political culture. As such, a professional stature develops within a dynamic state of examination and critical re-examination related to a professional culture, economic system, and contemporary social value system. This specialized status of professionalism is buttressed by an intellectual rigor and continual evaluation of its theory and process. Equally important is the fundamental requirement of ongoing examination to facilitate interrelated participants in a setting conducive to sharing and clarifying current issues that impact all design related professions and professionals dedicated to the environments that exist within and around the building shell and the particular architectural condition.
Traditionally, the disciplines of architecture and interior design view themselves as distinctive and singular; being both boundary-tied by professional legislation as well as seeing themselves as offering specialized service roles. This is reinforced by a protective “turf mentality” advanced and guarded by their respective professional and licensure organizations. While the line between services appears simplistically clear to the public—architecture is about mostly the outside of buildings, interior design directs itself to the inside—the complexity of an in-between ‘interior architecture’ obscures this view. What should be clear (and is to a small number of professionals, academics, and journalists) is there is a new set of circumstances in contemporary society that demands a shift in thinking: new problems require new approaches for creative solutions.
If we understand that the goal of design is to make our world better, disciplinary boundaries melt away and territorial squabbling dissolves. What emerges is a common core of design knowledge and a design methodology of problem solving geared toward analytical (problem definition) and outcome processes (problem solving) connected to human and environmental needs. This core is layered with communication skills sets that are both particular to individual design disciplines and shared between them. This common language provides for the transfer of abstract conceptual thought (and symbolic content) to a practical and applied language understood by practitioners and /or by the public on several levels. Legitimacy for each discipline is then validated on understanding of the broader parameters and the specific use-needs to be served. Architecture, interior architecture and interior design are now subsets together with graphic, industrial, landscape design, and so on—of an activity focused to solving problems for individuals and their collective societies to house, enhance, and prepare for a better future.
But the need for clarity on what differentiates interior design from interior architecture is a critical question to avoid confusion and misrepresentation in professional roles and academic curricula structures. Most importantly, this issue needs to be grounded in a forum to bring moral legitimacy to these design activities in separating their use from a serious, well guided use linked to finding optimal design solutions from a consumer marketing objective removed from the actual concept or service to be purchased.

Technology & Money

Technology & Money

This story starts in the 1850s with the founding of Western Union Telegraph and the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution.

When Morse was approaching his eightieth birthday it was felt among the telegraph fraternity at Western Union that a formal testimonial in the U.S. should be given to honor him - Saturday, June 10th, 1871 Morses final message was:

" Greeting and thanks to the Telegraph fraternity throughout the world.
Glory to God in the Highest, on Earth Peace, Goodwill to men."

S ... F .-. B -... M -- O . . R . .. S ... E .

Ezra Cornell’s story is the story of the telegraph in America. Always confident of its great commercial future, he enthusiastically demonstrated it, enlisted capital, and built lines. Although doing so frequently left his family destitute, he always took a large part of his pay in stocks, and invested in the first telegraph company, which connected New York and Washington. He built lines from the Hudson to Philadelphia and from New York to Albany, as well as lines in New York, Vermont and Quebec, and west to Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee. He was involved in the rapid construction of subsidiary lines, especially in the midwest, where the telegraph preceded rather than followed the railroad.
The early days of the telegraph industry were tumultuous. Many companies were formed, operated briefly and died. Stronger companies managed to survive despite conflicts, deception, and numerous lawsuits. Service on the hastily built lines was frequently unreliable. In 1851, the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was organized in Rochester by Hiram Sibley and others, with the goal of creating one great system with unified and efficient operations. Meanwhile, Cornell had bought back one of his bankrupt companies and renamed it the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company. Originally fierce competitors, by 1855 both groups were finally convinced that consolidation was their only alternative for progress. The merged company was named The Western Union Telegraph Company at Cornell’s insistence. Western Union rapidly expanded operations to most parts of the United States and Canada. While Cornell now took a less active role, he continued to have great faith in the telegraph. He held on to his Western Union stock, and for more than fifteen years was the company’s largest stockholder.

• via: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/Ezra-exhibit/EC-life/EC-life-6.html

Western Union bought out smaller companies rapidly, and by 1860 its lines reached from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, and from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. In 1861 it opened the first transcontinental telegraph. In 1865 it formed the Russian American Telegraph in an attempt to link America to Europe, via Alaska, into Siberia, to Moscow. (This project was abandoned in 1867.) The company enjoyed phenomenal growth during the next few years. Its capitalization rose from $385,700 in 1858 to $41 million in 1876. However it was top-heavy with stock issues, and faced growing competition from several firms, especially the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company—itself taken over by financier Jay Gould in 1875. In 1881 Gould took control of Western Union.

It introduced the first stock ticker in 1866, and a standardized time service in 1870. The next year, 1871, the company introduced its money transfer service, based on its extensive telegraph network. In 1879, Western Union left the telephone business, having lost a patent lawsuit with Bell Telephone Company. As the telephone replaced the telegraph, money transfer would become its primary business.
When the Dow Jones Transportation Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of the original eleven all-American companies tracked.
By 1900 Western Union operated a million miles of telegraph lines and two international cables.

• via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Union

Image: Cornell 1910 via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rummell,_Richard_Cornell_University.jpg
In 1862 the Morrill Land Grant Act had been passed, appropriating public lands to aid state agricultural and mechanical colleges. By 1864, Cornell’s family, his personal philanthropies, and the Public Library required only a small part of his considerable fortune. He had been elected to the New York State Senate, where he made the acquaintance of Andrew Dickson White of Syracuse. Through discussions with White, the idea of a university grew in Cornell’s mind. When the Legislature met in 1865, White introduced a bill in the Senate “to establish the Cornell University and to appropriate to it the income of the sale of public lands granted to this State.” After much political maneuvering, the bill was passed in the Assembly on April 21, in the Senate on April 22, and was signed by Governor Reuben E. Fenton on April 27. The first meeting of the Board of Trustees was held on April 28. Cornell endowed the university through an outright gift of $500,000, to which would be added the sum realized by Cornell’s purchase of the Morrill land scrip from the state.
Cornell was closely involved in all aspects of the new university. He superintended construction and purchased equipment, books, and collections. On October 7, 1868, Inauguration Day, 412 students, the largest entering class admitted to any American college up to that time, came to Ithaca. Cornell gave a brief address, concluding with the University’s newly adopted motto: “Finally, I trust we have laid the foundation of an University—an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.”

• via: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/Ezra-exhibit/EC-life/EC-life-11.html

The second story of wealth & philanthropy

LVMH to Buy Duty-Free Empire for $2.47 Billion

NYT Published: October 30, 1996

LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton, the French luxury goods conglomerate, has signed an agreement to buy a controlling interest in DFS Group Ltd., the lucrative empire of duty free shops, for $2.47 billion, DFS announced yesterday.
But Robert W. Miller, the high-flying billionaire who holds a 38.75 percent stake in DFS, is seeking to block the sale of the stake by his longtime partner and co-founder of the company, Charles F. Feeney, and Alan M. Parker, the company’s tax lawyer. Together they own 58 percent.

• via: http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/30/business/lvmh-to-buy-duty-free-empire-for-2.47-billion.html?ref=charlesffeeney

Rumpled by habit, limping on old knees, smiling faintly after a night of celebration, Chuck Feeney stepped out of a building on Park Avenue Monday night and vanished, carried away on a river of passing strangers who knew nothing about him. Perfectly disguised as an ordinary man, Mr. Feeney, one of the most generous and secretive philanthropists of modern times, had dropped from sight once again. It is a skill he mastered over decades.
Last year, the foundation Mr. Feeney created, the Atlantic Philanthropies, gave $458 million in grants around the world, more than any United States charity except two, the Ford and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. Atlantic, and small predecessors also started by Mr. Feeney, have given $4 billion since 1982; the plan is to give away the remaining assets — now $4 billion, but growing every day — by 2017.
Despite this record, Mr. Feeney is little known, a result of the web of intrigues that he fashioned to disguise his identity, his wealth and his giving. Atlantic does not appear in the annual rankings of the biggest American philanthropies because it was set up in Bermuda, to avoid the disclosures required in the United States. A rare glimpse of Mr. Feeney’s story emerged a decade ago during a business dispute, but he quickly disappeared from the news.
Now, however, Mr. Feeney, who is 76 years old and grew up in Elizabeth, N.J., is stepping out from behind his veil. He cooperated with a biographer, the journalist Conor O’Clery, whose book, “The Billionaire Who Wasn’t,” is being published by PublicAffairs. In it, he describes how Mr. Feeney and his partners went into business nearly 50 years ago selling five-pack boxes of liquor to American sailors in ports around Europe, and expanded into a worldwide empire of duty-free airport shops — often one quick step ahead of police or immigration authorities.

• via: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/nyregion/26about.html?ref=charlesffeeney

It is also reported: Then, by the use of off-shore cutout corporations, he gained anonymity to pursue his philanthropic goals. To further protect his identity, he did not even take a tax deduction for his charitable contributions.

For a great read of the History of DFS Group Ltd read more here:
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/DFS-Group-Ltd-company-History.html

A stylish apartment

A stylish apartment

This past weekend I had the pleasure of having dinner with DC based designer Sally Steponkus in her charming apartment. She graciously allowed me to take a few pictures with my camera phone to share with you.Sally's apartment shows her loves very strongly, as everyone's home should. Greek key trims, chinoiserie touches, inspiring design books and art of Venice fill the space.It's always fun to go to a friend's house and see they have so many of the same books as you!I loved this bowl of seashells on a sidetable as a reminder of past vacations.Two 60's club chairs from her childhood home have been recovered in a neutral linen as a great update. Notice the chinoiserie throw pillows added for comfort (and flair). The pineapple lamps do a great job of separating the dining room from the seating area as well as light the space in a beautiful way.

Her dining table doubles as an entry console when not in use. I loved the turquoise Spitzmiller lamp and greek key placemats.And I can't forget the delicious shortribs served on her grandmother's china for dinner which hit the spot on a cold evening. Thanks for a wonderful evening, Sally!

Even if your house is brand new, it draws inspiration from the past. This simple guide traces important housing styles from Colonial to modern times. Learn how houses have changed over the centuries, and discover interesting facts about the design influence that helped shape your own home.

Early American House Styles

Colonial Architecture in the New World

 

The pilgrims weren't the only people to settle in North America. Between 1600 and 1800, men and women poured in from many parts of the world, including Germany, France, Spain, and Latin America. Each group brought their own cultures and architectural traditions.

Using locally available materials, the colonists built what they could and tried to meet the challenges posed by the climate and landscape of the new country. They constructed the types of homes they remembered, but they also innovated and, at times, learned new building techniques from Native Americans. As the country grew, these early settlers developed not one, but many, uniquely American styles.

Centuries later, builders borrowed ideas from early American architecture to create Colonial Revival and Neo-colonial styles. So, even if your house is brand new, it may express the spirit of the America's colonial days. Look for features of these early American house styles:

1. New England Colonial

Stanley-Whitman House in Farmington, Connecticut, circa 1720. Photo by Staib/CC Share-Alike

1600s - 1740
The first British settlers in New England built timber-frame dwellings like the ones they had known in their home country. There's a medieval flavor to the enormous chimneys and diamond-pane windows found on many of these homes. Because the British colonists built with wood, only a few of their houses remain intact today. Still, you'll find charming New England Colonial features incorporated into modern-day Neo-Colonial homes.

2. German Colonial

De Turck House in Oley, PA. LOC photo by Charles H. Dornbusch, AIA, 1941

1600s - mid-1800s
When Germans traveled to North America, they settled in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. Stone was plentiful and the German colonists constructed sturdy homes with thick walls, exposed timbering, and hand-hewn beams. This historic photo shows the De Turck House in Oley, Pennsylvania, built in 1767.

Learn About German Colonial Houses

3. Spanish Colonial

Colonial Quarter in St. Augustine, Florida. Photo by Flickr Member Gregory Moine/CC 2.0

1600 - 1900
You may have heard the term Spanish Colonial used to describe elegant stucco homes with fountains, courtyards, and elaborate carvings. Those picturesque houses are actually romantic Spanish Colonial revivals. Early explorers from Spain, Mexico, and Latin America built rustic homes out of wood, adobe, crushed shells, or stone. Earth, thatch, or red clay tiles covered low, flat roofs. Few original Spanish Colonial homes remain, but wonderful examples have been preserved or restored in St. Augustine, Florida. Travel through California and the American Southwest and you'll also find Pueblo homes that combine Hispanic styling with Native American ideas.

Learn About Spanish Colonial Houses

4. Dutch Colonial

Philipsburg Manor House in Sleepyhollow, NY dates from 1693. Photo by Clifford's Photography/CC 2.0

1625 - mid-1800s
Like the German colonists, Dutch settlers brought building traditions from their home country. Settling mainly in New York State, they built brick and stone houses with rooflines that echoed the architecture of the Netherlands. You can recognize the Dutch Colonial style by the gambrel roof. Dutch Colonial became a popular revival style, and you'll often see 20th century homes with the characteristic rounded roof.

Learn About Dutch Colonial Houses

5. Cape Cod

Historic Cape Cod house in Sandwich, New Hampshire. Photo @ Jackie Craven

1690 - mid-1800s

A Cape Cod house is actually a type of New England Colonial. Named after the spit of land where the Pilgrims first dropped anchor, Cape Cod houses are one-story structures designed to withstand cold and snow. Centuries later, builders embraced the practical, economical Cape Cod shape for budget housing in suburbs across the USA. Even today this no-nonsense style suggests cozy comfort. Browse our collection of Cape Cod house pictures to see historic and contemporary versions of the style.

Learn About Cape Cod Houses

6. Georgian Colonial

Georgian Colonial House. Photo courtesy Patrick Sinclair

1690s - 1830
As the thirteen original colonies prospered, more affluent families built refined homes that imitated the Georgian architecture of Great Britain. Named after English kings, a Georgian house is tall and rectangular with an orderly row windows symmetrically arranged on the second story. During the late 1800s and first half of the 20th century, many Colonial Revival homes echoed the regal Georgian style.

 

7. French Colonial

French colonial plantation home. Photo cc Alvaro Prieto

1700s - 1800s
While the English, Germans, and Dutch were building a new nation along the eastern shores of North America, French colonists settled in the Mississippi Valley, especially in Louisiana. French Colonial homes are an eclectic mix, combining European ideas with practices learned from Africa, the Caribbean, and the West Indies. Designed for the hot, swampy region, traditional French Colonial homes are raised on piers. Wide, open porches (called galleries) connect the interior rooms.

8. Federal and Adam

 

 

Virginia Executive Mansion, 1813, by Alexander Parris. Photo ©Joseph Sohm/Visions of America/Getty

1780 - 1840
Federalist architecture marks the end of the colonial era in the newly-formed United States. Americans wanted to build homes and government buildings that expressed the ideals of their new country and also conveyed elegance and prosperity. Borrowing Neoclassical ideas from a Scottish family of designers--the Adam brothers--prosperous landowners constructed fancier versions of the austere Georgian Colonial style. These homes, which may be called Federal or Adam, were given porticoes, balustrades, fanlights, and other decorations.

CRAFTSMAN STYLE

CRAFTSMAN STYLE

Reaching the height of its popularity in the first decades of the 20th century, the
Craftsman style in America was informed by both European and Japanese architectural
design. The Craftsman style and the Arts and Crafts movement, of which Craftsman was
a part, hearkened back to medieval times, when the creative labor of human beings rather
than the constant hum of machinery was the driving force behind the built environment
and craft objects. The Craftsman movement would reinvigorate handicraft, return the
skilled artisan to a position of respect, and serve as a reminder that honest labor could be
joyful rather than dehumanizing. In England the Arts and Crafts movement originated
with such thinkers and architects as John Ruskin, William Morris, C.R.Ashbee, and
M.H.Baillie-Scott. On the Continent, Craftsman buildings tended to use more masonry
than wood, to incorporate tiled roofs, and to use half-timbered exterior ornamentation
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 612
with Tudor overtones. The American Arts and Crafts movement drew on these influences
while adapting itself to liberal capitalism and the varying climates and landscapes of the
United States. The movement and its design principles were popularized through such
publications as Gustav Stickley’s magazine The Craftsman. In contrast to the Victorian buildings that
preceded them, Craftsman structures eschewed applied ornamentation in favor of the
natural beauty of construction materials and a simplicity of line. Perhaps the greatest
irony of this preference for simplicity and honesty of materials was the reality that much
Craftsman joinery, in both architecture and furniture, was extremely elaborate and
difficult to execute.
The Craftsman style reached its fullest expression mainly in domestic rather than
public buildings. The style was characterized by the use of natural building materials,
such as brick, stone, and regionally available woods. A hallmark of Craftsman design was
the use of exposed joinery on both the exterior and the interior of buildings, an art
arguably brought to its most dra-matic realization in the Blacker House (1907) and
Gamble House (1908), designed by Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene in
Pasadena, California. It is in the work of the Greenes that the Japanese influence on the
Craftsman style is most apparent, particularly in the roof supports, lanterns, and reflecting
pool on the rear terrace. In addition to natural building materials and exposed joinery,
Craftsman domestic structures generally featured low-pitched roofs that served to anchor
the buildings to their surrounding landscape. Even the three-story Gamble House appears
relatively low to the ground. In addition the tasteful use of stained and art glass as well as
prominent fireplaces (often incorporating handmade tiles as a decorative element)
surrounded by inglenooks or seating areas were components of the style. The homes
typically (although not universally) worked toward an open plan, minimizing obstacles
between rooms. Craftsman style was also characterized by a belief in comprehensive
design where it was possible. In homes designed for wealthy clients by Frank Lloyd
Wright and the Greene brothers, for example, furniture, lighting fixtures, textiles, and
accessories were all designed as integral parts of the domestic space rather than as
afterthoughts.
In the United States the work of the Greene brothers is perhaps most frequently
associated with the Craftsman style at its best. Indeed, David P.Handlin (1979) has
argued that California was the most active region of the country for Arts and Crafts
design. The Greenes’ “Ultimate Bungalows” in Pasadena and additional projects
throughout the state, such as the Thorsen House (1908) in Berkeley, provide the bestpreserved
and most fully articulated examples of the style. Peter Davey describes the
Greenes’ style as one “in which complexity was built up from elements of great
simplicity, an architecture of timber in which beam was piled upon beam, rafter upon
rafter to form ordered nests of smooth sticks with great overhanging eaves and projecting
balconies to provide shade from the sun. Every member and every joint is made explicit”
(1980, 212). Craftsman-style buildings on the West Coast tended to draw on the work of
the Greenes and on Stickley’s Craf tsman designs, incorporating more wood than stone, including
shingles, and ample porches enhanced with rough stones or masonry.
In addition to the Greenes, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style is recognized as a part
of the Arts and Crafts movement despite the visible differences between Wright’s designs
and those of other Craftsman architects. While the Greenes were busy on the West Coast,
Wright was changing domestic architecture in the Midwest. His own home and studio
Entries A–F 613
(1889) in Oak Park, Illinois, exhibit many of the features described previously, such as
the tasteful use of art glass, prominence of natural woods, and fireplace inglenook.
Further, Wright’s Robie House (1906–09) in Chicago demonstrates the clean horizontal
lines, spectacular woodwork, free-flowing space, and dramatic central fireplace which
were key elements of Wright’s Prairie style. An excellent example of the Craftsman style
applied to a public building is Bernard Maybeck’s First Church of Christ Scientist (1909–
11) in Berkeley. The exposed brackets supporting the low-pitched roof and dramatic
windows exemplify the Craftsman style on a large scale.
With the onset of World War I, the Arts and Crafts movement in America began to
decline in popularity. The ideals that gave rise to the movement were losing their appeal
for many, and the allure of mass-produced housing components made pos sible in part
through the advances of wartime construction became increasingly hard to resist. The
simplicity of the Arts and Crafts movement was gradually replaced by the even more
simplified International Style, with its clean lines and blank facades. Even so, in almost
any town in the country, one can still feel the influence of the Craftsman style and its
domestic architectural ideals.

The Blue Planet, Kastrup

The Blue Planet, Kastrup

The Blue Planet 

Location : Kastrup

Client : The Blue Planet Building foundation

( Realdonia , Knud HΦjgaards Fond , Tarnby Kommune )

Architect : 3XN

Project Date : 2008

Status : Ongoing 

Completion Date : 2013 

Project Floor space : 9000 Sq.M.

Cost : 85,000,000 Euros.

Function : Aquirium.

The blue planet, the new aquarium designed by 3XN, will be a key attraction in Φresund . Its shape is inspired by a 3D-whirlpool. Walls and roof form a continuum creating a wave-like profile. Its sinuous convexity follows the undulating landscape, tailing off to disappear underground. The design deliberately intends to build visitors expectations about whats inside. They will have the sensation of being swept up bya vortex and transported to an underwater world. The feeling of being in a different universe starts right from the entrance hall for the glazed roof is also the bottom of an enormous fish tank.

The sky and sunrays filter through the water and onto the foyer walls and floor. This is the Round Room, pivotal point of the aquarium and the start of an adventure of discovery.

Externally , the low =level volume rising only a few meters above the ground blends effortless less into the low-laying landscape near the sea. The blue planet has been designed to accommodate possible future extensions without jeopardizing its original sculptural structure.