THE AUGMENTED CREATIVITY OF INTERIOR DESIGN

As a teacher and an architecture critic, contributing to evaluating the projects presented for the CID awards was a privilege. Besides appreciating the overall high level of creative originality, the design sophistication, and the final quality of the built projects, the course of evaluation allowed me to reflect on some disciplinary aspects.

Not long ago, I was asked what I thought about the difference between architecture and interior design. Coldly, my answer was: "It's just a question of scale." I felt that architectural design follows (or should follow) the same praxis as interior design and, of course, vice-versa. Indeed, I very much agree with the definition of the designing sequence suggested by RCR Arcquitectes, winners in 2017 of the prestigious Pritzker prize: Programa, Lugar, Concepto (Program, Site, and Brief). Also in interior design, the process starts with the client's request for a specific brief. Then, being usually an internal space, the Lugar (the site) is already built, and it has to be repurposed with a new function and a new identity. From these two initial data, the designer defines the theoretical concept (Concepto) that through the design development and construction will become the completed work.

If the two architectural design and interior design processes are mirrored in this light, where do the substantial differences between the two disciplines lie? Studying the CID award projects, I had the chance to reflect more on this question. I believe that some fundamental differences can help to distinguish the two design disciplines.

I will start with the notion of scale. It should be reminded that while it is essential to explore the relationships that a building, even a small one, establishes with its context at 1: 1000 or 1: 500 scale, the same ones would not make much sense if applied to the project of interior space. While architecture requires the use of several scales of representation in design explorations and graphic expressions, interior design ones usually start around 1:200; above that, the drawing may not correctly represent spaces and other project components.

Then, beyond the scale, what is another substantial difference between architecture and interior design? For my part, it concerns the ontological property of architecture to be present in our perceptual realm even if we do not decide it a priori. The spatial experience of interior design appears when we cross the threshold that separates the external space from the internal one. This overcoming is subjective, and often (unless it is a prison), it is voluntary. Architecture, on the other hand, is always present, even without our consent. We perceive it not because we have decided to enter a particular space but because, for example, we are just on a journey through a city or a landscape. This load of decision-making subjectivity is present in the interior space's perception and frees interior designers from many social responsibilities to which, instead, architecture should always respond. Liberation from the perceptual constraint of architecture that involves all parts of society may be the engine of an augmented artistic process pertinent to interior design.

In other words, while the architect's creative subjectivity should always deal with inputs coming from many contextual factors, the interior designer seems to be allowed a more personal approach. Perhaps, a design process that is more linked to taste, style, and other factors that are carriers of certain aesthetic intangibility. In terms of spatial concepts submitted for the CID awards, the great variety seems to endorse my assumption fully. Finally, I believe that the last relevant difference between architecture and interior design lies in the average time length between conception and complete realization. In comparison, architecture is always a long process that sometimes lasts decades and, sadly, too many times never sees a full completion. Interior design provides short lead times necessary to respond to functional needs that are sometimes almost impromptu. The speed of the process is also crucial regarding the research on new technologies and overall innovation. Indeed, the interior design implements technological and material evolutions much faster than those applied in most architectural creations do.