INTERIOR DESIGN IS A REFLECTION OF THE ERA

Lifestyle is a phenomenon that has always existed and the desire to portray it did
not first emerge in the modern age.

Interiors communicate the lifestyle of the inhabitant to the rest of the world;

• they project emotions into space and stimulate motivations and desires.

• authentic interiors that are an appropriate expression of our time and reflect
the age we live in, differ from those of the past. authenticity is here the key:

• Reveal themselves as such in stylistic uncertainty and confusion.

• Scandinavian design and its formal language are still very much in demand.
many cur- rent chair designs look like copies of moulded chairs from past
decades. Designs from 50 years ago are still felt to be modern today. the
same goes for architecture and the so-called Bauhaus style, which has been
around for almost a hundred years.

you HaVe to be
insPired...
FasHion, MusiC,
art and sCienCe as
design inspiration

What does design/designing Mean and What do We understand by qualities?

Discussing design qualities in interior architecture requires that we first need to ask
what we understand by design and quality in the context of space. For the most
part, it is clear that the design of a space is determined by the functions and the
activities taking place within it, and that this must follow a “human-centred
process”. But interior design is not solely a product of reason. In addition to
functional and pragmatic considerations, there is emotion and narration as well as
something we find agreeable but hard to identify that gives space a quality that
enriches our lives – something that makes us feel comfortable in the space or
reinforces our sense of self and consequently evokes a feeling of belonging.
If an interior is to be designed for music, then once again it is the functions, room
programme or surrounding functions in the context of its environment that
determine the brief for the design. only rarely does a transdisciplinary approach, an
abstract natural form or the sound of a note of a particular instrument serve as
inspiration for the first sketch of the building’s interior design, although this is
sometimes the case for the exterior of buildings for music. Are such approaches to
designing – those that are infused with feelings, creative freedom and chaotic and
hard-to elaborate inspirations – really only possible in the comparative freedom of
studies, or are they the sole reserve of star architects and interior designers? or do
we need to give greater room to philosophical and ethical values – in addition, of
course, to resource-friendly sustainable approaches to design and the respective
functional concerns?

Inspiration: between
emotion and function
“An apple and a pear elevated to imposing monumentality – this is how the
Frankfurt painter Justus Juncker presents the fruit in his two still lifes from the year
1765.… Depicted against a dark background and illuminated by a bright ray of
light, the apple and pear exude a magical presence. Masterly painted in a manner
evocative of the Dutch painters of the 16th and 17th centuries, Juncker reproduces
the different materials and surfaces, showing the traces of aging on the stone
pedestals on which the over-ripe fruit rest, along with the fleeting shadows of the
insects that feed on the fruit and their fragile bodies.” The view that the art
historian Max Hollein relates in the catalogue The Magic of Things – Still Life
Painting 1500-18003 is not typical of art historical texts. It is a directed, many-
layered description
of the way of reading the work of art, which represents nature in a certain way
according to the ideas of the artist in the 18th century. What Hollein describes
here, and makes palpable for the reader, is its narrative value.

A private space may be inspired by an item of furniture, or by a painting, a

particular wall texture or covering, a restored historical mural, or the dominant
elements of the space itself, such as high ceilings, large glazed surfaces, its quality
of light… all these are possible inspirational elements that influence or characterise
the quality of the space because they (help to) shape it. The inspirations, such as
the choice of elements, and how they have been portrayed to best effect under the
prevailing circumstances in a person’s private space present an image of the
individual, their personal taste and emotional character in a way that the design
elements of a semi-public space, such as a hotel lobby, or a public space, such as a
concert hall, never can. These need to accommodate many individuals, to provide
an appropriate setting in terms of the style and period in which people feel “at
home” for the short time during which they are there. The intention here is that
people respond positively to the space, through the objects in it, the arrangement of
the space, the quality of light and so on which – in combination or individually,
and without additional help from other details – strike a chord with the visitor.

You have to be inspired…

by music
In the discipline of music, one can fill spaces with a carpet of sound, or the timbre
and resonance of a voice. But can a room itself have a timbre? Can an interior be
given a carpet of sound that has a soft and velvety tone, or that reflects the sound
of a viola playing pianissimo and awakens associations with wine-red velour?
Some people are able to make a direct synaesthetic connection between sensory
sensations and a corresponding conceptual or three-dimensional design quality. In
the world of theatre, this mechanism is of central importance, inspiring and giving
shape to the production. The design seeks to capture, to interpret the freedom of
thought by means of verbal or emotional association but always ultimately returns
to function: the function of creating an atmospheric quality for the interior Music is
a very good example of how emotions can be captured, and the same principle
applies equally to the design of interiors. People are able to feel and sense abstract
ideas, and these are not solely expressed verbally but also in material form. Nicole
Brüggmann, describes the inspiration for her design for a temporary interior for the
Classic Lounge in the Museum of History in Hanover in 2010 as follows:
This ability to make connections between different senses is something we can all
do, and is a skill that can be trained to a greater or lesser degree through practice,
as described by the psychologist Elsbeth Stern in her elaborations on research into
human intelligence.

You have to be inspired…

by art
In the search for inspiration(s), the term “uniqueness” features often in today’s
design processes. At the Contract- World Expo in 2011, the Finnish architect
Teemu Kurkela presented his country with the question, “What makes us unique?”
So what is it that makes us unique, what makes him and his office unique, what is
unique about the qualities of creative design from Finland? Uniqueness is sought
after as an antidote to cheap uniformity, as a means of attracting interest in a
difficult economic climate and, of course, as a means of increasing turnover. Many
companies introduce more strongly differentiated luxury brands and premium
labels in an attempt to raise their profile, using this quality of uniqueness.

The power of style is, one could say, ingrained in the genetic material of French
craftsmanship: interior designers such as Christian Liaigre produce work that has a
particular linguistic design quality, work that upholds design codes for interior
design that are reflected both in the history of craftsmanship as well as in the
natural and cultural design tradition of the land, the value of which in the case of
France is supported and cultivated by the state and other institutions. An
association like the Comité Colbert, founded in 1954 to represent manufacturers
such as Les Gobelins, the royal crystal and glass producers and others on the
international market, and therefore to strengthen the reputation of la grande nation,
would not go amiss in other countries as they increasingly seek to differentiate
themselves from others in the context of increasing globalisation. Then as now, the
Comité Colbert is a patronage for style savants.
Another entirely different use of art is as part of the design of a space in a manner
familiar from boardrooms where large-format oil paintings are used as dominant
eye-catchers. Here art is used as a design element of a space. As an expression of a
standpoint, or a declaration thereof, such a use of art often resembles a display of
power, a way of cultivating a space by providing strategic focus. When works
of art dominate a space, they contribute to the quality of a space within the context
of its readability: what is the room owner trying to tell us? Why has my friend
decided to hang this particular work of art? Is it something he or she likes, was it
just a good investment, or does it happen to be in fashion? Or was it actually the
product of a flash of inspiration – an idea of how art can contribute to the space –
that motivated the decision? new temporary constellations of spaces would be
created: much like in an open-plan office, the position of walls changed, creating
rooms of new sizes with differing subdivisions. The spectacle was especially
magical in the evening and at dusk when people occupied the installation for short
periods, jumping from room to room more than walking around it. The fleeting
presence of the walls and their semi-transparent, slightly fuzzy appearance was
quite enthralling, and yet also quite evidently a folly. This kind of flexible, fleeting
moment in which elements temporarily structure a space is something that office-
furnishing systems can provide. In this case, art was probably not the motivation
for such systems, but rather the need to respond to changing production processes
and workflows gave rise to such functionality, which in turn influenced its design.