The conjunction ‘urban + interior’ brings together two conditions which are often posed as dichotomies. Here rather than a relation of either/or – either interior or urban – the relation is one of addition, of putting together in a propositional manner. Making relations between interior and urban is not new, and especially not in the discourse of interior design and interior architecture. The writings of the philosopher Walter Benjamin are often cited in histories and theories of interiors – dynamics between interior and urban expressed in the relation between the private interior of the collector and the urban industrial city; the flâneur’s urban meanderings and outside-in gaze. Over a hundred years later, the question of how to inhabit the urban is still pertinent but the conditions are different. Delineations of private and public, spatial and temporal relations inflected by industrialisation, globalisation, migration and digital technologies have transformed interior and urban environments. The proposition of the conjunction urban + interior posed in the current issue of this journal invites consideration and experimentation in relation to questions of inhabitation in urban environments and how might the urban infiltrate interior environments. This involves not only thinking about the conjunction coming from interior design in relation to the urban but also the transformation of the interior by the urban. The photographs and writings of Mark Pimlott, addressing the issue of interior territories and the public interior, and the architectural historian Charles Rice and his work on interior urbanism are significant contemporary contributions to and examples of the criticality and potential of this conjunction.    

An interior history as a concept brings together history and interior design with a particular emphasis on addressing the spatial and temporal qualities that are implicit in both practices. Titled ‘Towards an Interior History’, this paper focuses on a process of making, hence the word ‘towards’ an interior history. It is not yet in a position to define what an interior history is – to answer the question ‘what is an interior history?’ – and may never be. By the end of the paper, it is hoped that questions such as ‘How does an interior history work?’ ‘How does it function?’ will be understood as more useful to pose. Why? Because dominant models of history and interior design have produced particular kinds of histories of interior design – ones which privilege the visual, hence objects and permanent architectural elements, as well as structures of enclosure and containment. An interior history as a concept celebrates the role of history in the production of the new and seeks to respond to current forces emerging in the design of interiors – for example, temporality, movement, change, encounters. The position here is not one of criticism and a quest for a better history, an attempt to re-write the past in order to re-right. The term ‘inter-story’ – formed from a conjunction between interior and history – is introduced as a technique for re-thinking history and interior design and as an approach to be taken up in a movement towards an interior history in the making of an interior history.

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The 21st century is a time of significant change to and in urban environments and cities. The momentous and unrelenting movement of people seeking refuge in cities other than their own; the impact of weather, pandemics, terrorism and war; the effect of technology; and the transformation of concepts such as public and private highlight the urgent need to think differently about cities in relation to inhabitation. It seems appropriate, indeed vital, to bring the expertise, techniques, and concerns of the interior designer and interior architect into the urban realm to attend to how people might inhabit the urban environment. This chapter curates a series of propositions that position the practice of interior design in the urban environment. Each proposition engages a different theoretical framework in relation to the concept of “interior” and, as a consequence, a different methodology.

Practising with Deleuze offers the first systematic reading of Gilles Deleuze’s mature philosophy from the perspective of contemporary creative practitioners, including fine artists, a dancer, a creative writer, designer and philosopher. It offers a way of rethinking notions of aesthetics, art, and creativity within the field of practice. Unconventional in presentation, this book is reflective of the engagement of contemporary creative practices with the generative philosophy of Deleuze. Each chapter focuses on a key aspect of production - practising, forming, framing, experiencing, and encountering - and is accompanied by short summary texts outlining the context of Deleuze’s contributions to each of these aspects. These discussions contextualise Deleuzian thought within a range of practices. In so doing, they enable the reader to approach these philosophical concepts within the milieu of creative practice.