Dialects of design education: exploring an appropriate approach to contemporary interiors in historical buildings

Abstract

Due to economic adversities brought on by the global recession, rapid urbanisation of the developing world and the need for sustainable design, a pressing need has arisen to incorporate appropriate and meaningful contemporary interiors in historical buildings. Initial informants of this study identified a need for interior design students to develop awareness and suitable skills to design such regenerating contemporary interiors and that interior design curricula include these critical-analytical skills. This paper provides a conceptual framework that hopes to assist students to achieve the desired coherence contemporary interiors owe their historical environments through the design of multisensory environments. This will be done by exploring the notions of small narratives, neo-plasticism, stratification and detailing. By probing how these principles may be found in two case studies, Castelvecchio in Verona and Museum van de Caab outside Cape Town, this study hopes to indicate how multisensory environments may be analysed and designed.