Putting it Together 1

Materials is one of the first themes that I recalled learning about this semester. Materials, to me, help understand the ideas and intended use behind the piece of furniture or space being used. When reviewing this in my head, I thought of a kitchen. Certain materials are used in that space to help people know what it is intended for and what can be done with the furniture and design. A counter top is hard and easily cleaned because it is assumed it will be cooked on. The cabinets are made of wood or another hard material because they will be holding a decent amount of weight and stuff will need to be stored in the cabinets. The kitchen stool that is shown below helps explain the theme of materials. It is made of a durable outside that allows spills and dirt to be cleaned easily but it still has cushion on the seat to allow comfort to still be seen as a priority. The adjustment lever also shows that it is intended to be used and can be used at any given height based on the height over an island counter or a table. Materials can be understood in any space and they help to give an understanding as to what the piece is intended to be used for.

Experience is the first one I had learned about and tried to understand. Experience is how a person behaves in the space and helps t tell what the space is intended to be used for.  Any space, interior or exterior, you walk into will be different when it comes to the experience that you see and perceive based on how the space was set up. A lot of things can contribute to how the experience is given off. When learning about experience, I remember hearing the word ‘proxemics.’ This refers to the amount of space between people and whether it is a personal or social space. This can be looked at when looking at a room to help understand the intended experience. If people are forced to be close, this would be a space to be personal. If people were within the same area, they can be social and hold conversation.  These things include the way the furniture is set up, the furniture that is used, the lack of furniture, and much more. One easy way to see experience in a space is based on the amount of furniture. In the below picture of an art gallery, it is easy to see what the experience should be. There are no seats which says that people are expected to stand and walk around the space. The pictures line the wall which encourage viewers to go further into the room to see the art and the lighting points their attention to the art. This is the intended experience at an art gallery.

If I remember right, when we talked in lecture about finishes we took a deeper look at Florence Knoll and her ideas with design vs decoration. To understand decoration, is to understand importance of finishes. A decoration is the look that the design gives off and that is given off by the finishes that were chosen. A finish that features cool colors and a soft look would give off the impression of a comfortable and personal space. I believe that that is different from the look of the below picture. This space shows a harder and glossy finished look. This gives off the look and feel of a higher status and more fragile look. Something that you may not sit and get comfortable in. The finish of the marble floors work to give off the rich look. The big windows are a finish as well and help to make the marble floors look even more fancy just like the staircase and antique looking furniture.

Furnishings was the easiest for me to understand and learn because it is what I always considered to be interior design. This is the fun part to me where furnishings make the space personal and make it to come alive. The furnishing choices include the furniture, the shape of furniture, the color of the walls, furniture, and textiles. The specific choices can add to the character and personality of a home and interior space to allow a person to feel like it belongs to them and represents themselves. The furnishings allow the experience to be easier and more clear because it can promote conformability or a room where it is used purely for decoration, like a fancy living room. Furnishing choices are seen all around and in any space. Every interior space has a different concept of furnishings and that is what I like about it; every space is different and represents someone else. The little girl’s bedroom pictured below is filled with furnishings. They include the castle shaped furniture, the pink draped curtains, the frilly bed skirt, the pink scattered throughout the room and the fancy princess-like desk. All these furnishings come together to represent the little girl.

Representation and theories were the hardest concepts and themes for me to understand. It was not clear to me how they related to interior design and I had trouble applying this in any way. I understood the different theories and the ideas that backed up why certain interior design choices were made and helped me to understand the time period of when the choices were made. The best theories for me to apply and understand were the theories of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Stewart Brand theory. I preferred to try and understand the Stewart Brand Theory in terms of interior design. There a 6 basic layers of a house and those layers vary on how often they are changed and updated. The structure and site of the house never changes but the space inside and the stuff inside is what changes based on who is occupying the interior space. I like to look at this with a renovated kitchen and understanding that the cabinets are still there, the water and electrical is still there, but the design and look of the kitchen is different.