(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
‘Rooms disappear, and consequently any history of the interior encounters a problem of evidence, for its subject no longer exists.’ In his Manhattan Transcripts, 1981, Bernard Tschumi said that architecture ‘cannot be disassociated from the events that happen in it’ . For Tschumi, built form is both material witness and collaborator in the ‘event-world’ that unfolds through and around it. This paper examines differing strategies of capturing this ‘event-world’, where the physical entity, in this instance, the architectural interior, operates as a witness to the passing of time and the transient interactions that take place within in it. We examine two differing contexts; the remains of Magnusson Grossman’s California houses and an 18th century workshop in the Isle of Wight. Both sites could be considered ‘marginal’ typologies that fall outside the remit and control of conservation and preservation orders. They both sit on the periphery of what could be perceived as valuable. Without these forensic undertakings, the hidden narratives that reside within the structure and materiality of these rooms could potentially be lost and their voices silenced. Applying contrasting methodologies, one digital and the other analogue, each space is interrogated. We reflect on their capacity to; witness, record, document, extract and reproduce hidden qualities, atmospheres and aromas that could otherwise be overlooked. In one context, photographs and scans led to acts of photogrammetry. In the other, mono prints, drawings and making. Are these architectural mappings able to manifest an ‘appearance’, a palpable reading of the built form? Can either conjure a nascent scenario from which inferences may be drawn? ‘like an echo across time, it captures something almost visceral – we feel the architecture inside ourselves almost as if we were present at the time of its inception’ .
Naomi House is a designer, educator and writer. A Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture and Design at Middlesex University, her specific expertise is in the field of interiors and its psycho-spatial dimension. Pushing against the domestic interior as a typology that tends to be resistant to change, Naomi’s teaching and research practice focus on the agency of the interior and its role in informing everyday behaviors. She is particularly interested in the use of forensic methods as a strategy for exploring and questioning how objects, environments and their interactions can be analyzed, interpreted and animated. Alongside her role at Middlesex University, Naomi was a Tutor in Critical & Historical Studies at the Royal College of Art (2000-2018), as well as an Associate Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art (2018-2019). She has also tutored at The Cass, London Metropolitan University (2003-2006) and The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (1994-1996), and has been the Internal Moderator for both the MA Architecture and MA Fine Art/Painting programmes at the Royal College of Art. She is currently the External Examiner for BA Interior Design at Regents University in London and the new External Examiner for the BA Interior Design at the Glasgow School of Art. She is a member of the REF Committee for UoA32 at Middlesex University.
Rebecca Disney MA RCA FHEA, is a designer and educator. Her professional practice has evolved from the design and manufacture of bespoke furniture and lighting for the interior to the design and implementation of interior spaces, both domestic and commercial. She works collaboratively with Lanyon-Hogg Architects across a range of scale of projects that include a series of hotel refurbishments in central London, commercial meeting/office spaces and most recently, a small music rehearsal space in North London. In parallel to her practice, Rebecca is a Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture Design at Middlesex University where her primary concerns lie within the territory of affective reasoning; examining strategies and tactics employed within the process of designing interior and architectural spaces. In recent years, she has contributed to the Interior Educators platform IE:Studio Issue#4 and a portfolio of her study Affective Reasoning: Hidden Interiors was submitted to the 2021 Practice based Outputs REF UoA32 at Middlesex University.
Francesca Murialdo BA. MSc (Hons). PhD. SFHEA, is Programme Leader for Interior Architecture at Middlesex University in London. She’s an architect and a PhD in Interior Architecture and Exhibition Design and she has practiced and taught Interiors from 1998 at the School of Architecture and at the School of Design, Politecnico di Milano, before moving to Middlesex University in 2015. Francesca’s research focuses on the scale, able to build connections between spaces, people and objects, underlining emerging behaviours and strategies. Francesca has been invited to taught and lecture in institutions, Master Degrees and Undergraduate Programmes both in Italy and abroad (TU Delft, Lan Tao Culture Beijng, China Institute of Interior Design, Tongji University Shanghai, Hasselt Universiteit,..). She founded and directed two practices, Studiometrico and Labomint, and her work has been widely published worldwide being awarded ArchDaily Building of the Year 2009 and nominated for the Architecture Golden Medal of the Triennale di Milano in 2012. Francesca has a track record of published articles, papers and book chapters in addition to outcomes of practice-based research. She is co-director of Interior Educators, the national subject association which represents Interior Architecture and Spatial Design degree programmes the in UK and Ireland and Director for Research at European Interior Educators.
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Friday 17th June, 2022