Interior Ecologies: exposing the evolutionary interior

Main Article Content

Gini Lee

Abstract

simply put, ecology is a relational concept that concerns the exploration of interactions between the individual, their communities and the environments that sustain them, and this is not confined to the human domain. Although the normative understanding of ecology in everyday use can infer the world of organisms and systems found in the ‘natural’ world, its etymological roots lie in relatively recent interpretations of the Greek oikos and the study of the house and habitation. If it follows that ecological thinking applied to interiors is predicated upon relational thinking, then research into interior ecological practice should offer up alternative concepts for design that move beyond ‘green’ environmentalism and associated sustainable design approaches to embrace a range of disciplinary and theoretical domains. The IDEA JOURNAL 2010 Interior Ecologies provocation arises from an interest in exposing how a critical ecological approach to interiors can enable expanded locales for research and experiment in private and public realms. Commonly held concepts regarding the vulnerability of the ongoing sustainability and stability of designed habitats in the face of global political, societal and economic change frequently promote technological regimes and societal education as factors aiding recovery over developing more conservative and lateral responses influenced by novel design strategies. Projects such as Paul Virilio’s and Diller, Scofidio + Renfro’s Native Land Stop Eject, at Foundation Cartier, Paris in 2008, graphically bring into focus the predicted global mobility of communities and cultures due to climatic and other environmental dynamics, and such issues are increasingly being explored by emerging urban design and architectural research and practice. The provocation Interior Ecologies: exposing the evolutionary interior seeks to elicit parallel interior-focused research and discourse influenced by speculations into environmental and social change to uncover emerging explorations into contemporary interior spatial, material and performative practices.

Article Details

How to Cite
Lee, Gini. 2010. “Interior Ecologies:: Exposing the Evolutionary Interior”. idea journal 10 (1):6-13. https://doi.org/10.37113/ideaj.v0i0.115.
Section
Editorial
Author Biography

Gini Lee, Queensland University of Technology

Dr Gini Lee is a landscape architect and interior designer and is the Elisabeth Murdoch Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of Melbourne. As the past professor of Landscape Architecture at Queensland University of Technology she focused on landscape design and theory regarding the curation and postproduction of complex landscapes and interiors. As the former head of school at the University of south Australia she was involved in spatial interior design and cultural and critical landscape architecture studies. her phD entitled The Intention to Notice: the collection, the tour and ordinary landscapes, investigated ways in which designed interiors and landscapes are incorporated into the cultural understandings of individuals and communities. she is a registered landscape architect, executive editor of the IDEA Journal, a member of the Queensland heritage Council and chair of art + place for Arts Queensland.