The changing room: Towards an interior multiplicity

Abstract

Rooms are the proto-spatial modules that define our engagements with space. They hold our intimate narratives whilst projecting our curated public images. Within their jurisdiction, we assume the persona of their typologies and act under the code of their determinants. However, the candour of this exchange is not all it promises to be, as it only works in the presence of various types of rooms in one place/building, where our everyday life plays out episodically in various compartments. What happens to our understanding of rooms when users are not afforded multiple room types to traverse? When one has to sleep, live, work, cleanse, eat, pray, and play in a single room? When instead of changing rooms, the occupants have to dwell in a changing room, one that adapts and mutates to accommodate needs and desires. This paper speculates on the increased demand for functional multiplicity in our interior settings and the changing nature of rooms. It presents various interior acts that aim to activate a variability of spatial configurations, making a case for layering multiple living narratives to respond to the ever-changing programmatic needs of contemporary life.