Journal of Interior Design最新文献

Spatial ability—the ability to represent, transform, and manipulate two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) information—is vital in solving everyday problems; however, compared to the well-known role of spatial ability in engineering or science, little is known about its role in interior design performance. In addition, the mismatch of reported male outperformance on general spatial ability tasks and absence of gender difference in design performance prompt questioning on whether interior design requires a specific type of spatial ability that general spatial ability tests may not sufficiently measure. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand the details of spatial ability and their relationship with students’ interior design performance. In order to clarify the particular spatial proficiency required for interior design, the following test tools were used: (1) general spatial ability tests and (2) the Architecture and Interior design domain-specific Spatial Ability Test (AISAT), developed for this study. The spatial ability scores of 40 interior design majors at one university in South Korea were compared with the scores they received from three experts on design projects they completed. Results show that (1) 2D-to-3D visualization proficiency on the AISAT correlated with both the originality and three-dimensional quality of the design product, (2) 2D-to-3D visualization proficiency predicted both the originality and 3D quality of the design product, and (3) male outperformance was found only in general spatial ability. Results highlight the necessity to nurture 2D-to-3D visualization proficiency for the improvement of design performance in interior design education.

This paper elaborates on the design of a place for mourning as a new use for an abandoned church building and its surroundings. Rather than replacing Christian worship with a secular program, the project aims to reactivate and strengthen the historical presence of spirituality by adding new layers to the design of this historic church. Using the singularity of the place and the quality of its rural landscape as catalysts, the proposed design seeks to place death and the act of mourning within a broader and renewed spiritual experience by borrowing and associating concepts related to rituals from different cultures and times. Besides a columbarium and a funeral space, the site may be used as a place for the celebration of life and its memory or simply as a meaningful place to meet with family or friends. The church, for which an adaptive reuse proposal is discussed in this paper, is one of many in Flanders that, in recent years, has lost its religious function as the result of the secularization of society. The presented project is part of a research program initiated by the Flemish Government that aims to conduct feasibility studies for the transformation of parish churches using research-by-design as a methodology.

To design places of spiritual quality and depth, designers need to reconnect themselves to the nature of place in order to create a sense of belonging prior to presenting a design solution. The traditional site analysis research produced by architects is too removed from the atmosphere of place and often becomes a set of drawings representing a hierarchical human use analysis based solely on function. This type of process needs to change in order to bring about awareness of the character of place, including making users more present with time and their own sense of belonging.

Rituals are an inherent part of spirituality, and in this case, the acts performed to understand and embody the character of place encourage the sense of spiritual. The rituals presented in this paper are ethnographic methods that challenge the Western conventions of the design process. They encourage imagination and empathy through writing poetry that utilizes personification, rhythm, and bodily movement that cocreates knowledge of the sense of place through action.

The design of public spaces is an important aspect of our culture and critical engagement. To arrive at meaningful spaces, the personal and civic culture needs to be expressed and highlighted. This paper presents how to change the traditional design process in order to better understand the character of place prior to designing a solution.

This visual essay investigates the Steilneset Memorial (2011) in Vardø, Norway—a collaborative effort between the artist Louise Bourgeois and the architect Peter Zumthor. Consisting of two separate buildings, often referred to as a “line and a dot,” the project aims to narrate a centuries-old tragic history of witchcraft. The memorial was imagined as a commemorative project that responds to the spatial and cultural context of the location while also evoking the traumatic legacy. To address the centuries-old harrowing episode, the designers explored a concept of spirituality as a way to transcend historical time.

Spaces for therapy and counseling are spaces whose physical characteristics transform into metaphysically changed feelings of transcendental reality and meaningful, spiritual overtones. For individuals who self-harm, therapeutic processes and associated interior spaces can be contemplative spaces, where they might develop interconnectedness with oneself and a sense of self-actualization. Therapeutic spaces can address high levels of anxiety and mitigate potential dissociation, which is when the individual is removed from a sense of aliveness, a sense of presence and immersion in the realm of sensory experience. This paper examined the perceptions of spatiality of individuals who self-harm and the interior encounters for which they were exposed. The data collection involved a series of semistructured interviews with mental health service users who self-harm, their careers, therapists/counselors, architects, and design experts/researchers. Also included was an examination of existing built therapeutic spaces. A series of findings revealed relationships between perceptions of spatiality and the spiritual dimensions of therapeutic environments. Based upon qualitative data, how individuals who self-harm experience particular connections between physical and psychological spaces, and how their interior space encounter is overlaid with inhabitation of past service users are presented. A discussion of sensory encounter and dissociation and the relationship between trace and spatial perception leads to a series of research-derived design recommendations to be used to develop supportive, therapeutic spaces delivering mental health services.

Built in 1957, The Helen Mauck Galbreath Memorial Chapel opened on the campus of Ohio University. The charter of Galbreath Chapel states that people of all faiths are welcome and that “no permanent furnishings would be identifiable to a specific religion or denomination”. Sixty years later, The United Meditation Room opened in the University's Vernon R. Alden Library with a similar welcome but a very different interior design strategy, one that reflects the gradual shift from religious identities to notions of spirituality. This case study explored the role of interiors and architecture in defining spirituality and supporting campus desires for religious diversity and inclusion. Informed by an understanding of environmental symbology, the following two questions shaped the investigation: (1) How do architectural vocabulary and interior treatments of the 1957 design now carry meaning which has rendered the previously faith-neutral Galbreath Chapel Western in ideology and religiosity? and (2) How does the interior of The United Meditation Room represent a new model for spirituality, religious diversity, and inclusion? This study found that artifacts of the interior defined each space as inclusive and welcoming in their own time yet identified The United Meditation Room as uniquely situated to represent a contemporary model of spirituality on campus.

This wide-ranging essay considers how photographs convey and condition understandings of spiritual space. Photographs have the potential to penetrate more deeply into spiritual experience, to shape ideas about it, and to take people to places they might not otherwise go. Photographic representations may reflect and frame numentectonic (spiritual-architectural) interiors for many people even more so than first-hand experience. Complicating the question of representation, all architectural settings possess atmospheres (referred to by some researchers as ambiences), and these atmospheres are only sometimes spiritual. Spiritual atmosphere is one variety of atmosphere, and to be seen it must be represented and named. A photograph can record atmospheres on the surface of things, capture the spirit of interior space, whether religious or secular, suggest spiritual worlds, and reveal human desire to make contact with those worlds. The history of photography suggests several categories and kinds of photographs as significant touch points in this analysis. Received and ever-evolving cultural understandings further mediate the production and reception of photography. Understanding photography's rhetorics, techniques, media, and settings helps clarify the relationship between atmospheres, interior architecture, and spirituality.

Contemplative practices, such as mindfulness, have gained popularity across a variety of secular contexts by mitigating the distractions of everyday life, reducing negative reactivity, and cultivating a more thoughtful awareness of one's present experience. In addition, these practices may foster a heightened sense of empathy, feelings of interconnectedness, and a reduction in assumptions. Evidence supports that mindfulness practices in higher education can reduce stress while increasing focus and creativity; however, the connections with design are less established. The general lack of clarity in defining mindfulness and contemplative practices makes their assessment difficult. This project assessed the value of mindfulness and contemplative practices in an interior design studio. In an upper-level, undergraduate interior design studio class, students participated in a range of contemplative practices while simultaneously designing an inpatient hospice facility that required the incorporation of contemplative spaces for patients, visitors, and staff. By first engaging with practices in class, it was anticipated that students would see their positive value by also incorporating contemplative practices into their personal lives. During the semester, surveys assessed the students’ reaction to the various practices, and their results demonstrated that, not only did the students respond favorably to the practices, but a significant number of respondents indicated that they would like more opportunity to engage with contemplative practices in the university setting. These general results point to a positive experience with contemplative practices in an interior design studio class and open up new opportunities to consider how these practices may benefit the field at large.