The Big Rethink: Tectonic Materiality of Interior Elements

"The Big Rethink is a series of postgraduate interior design studios focused on developing a multitude of notions, approaches, positions and arguments within the interior design field. This semester, the fourth one in the series, the studio challenges the concept of the Tectonic Materiality of interior elements. The first four weeks structured as the Design boot camp introduces three argumentative premises - Architecture as Architecture, Interior Design Sensibilities and Interior Design specialisation. The latter part of the studio is divided into two modules: the first builds a hypothesis on tectonic materiality and the second module explores three key roles of an interior designer with each student working on three smaller projects. Role one focuses on practices that work within the context of an ‘era’, role two focuses on practices that are sited within the ‘standardisation’ of the typical floor plan and role three challenges the boundaries between interior design and architecture. Each role also explores various representation mediums- photomontages, Orthographic drawings, perspectives and detail drawings. The studio focuses on representing experiential and ephemeral qualities, planning and organising strategies, detailing and construction techniques, through the lens of tectonic materiality."