ABSTRACT
The practice of Interiors can be described as a new discipline and in its present form this is true; even the use of the word interior to describe the inside of a building only came into common use at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The idea of interiors as a profession developed in the late nineteenth century, with the first recorded use of the term ‘interior design’ occurring in 1927. Because of its apparent ‘youth’, interior design has been seen as part of the discipline of architecture and as such has operated literally and conceptually ‘within’ architecture, borrowing its means of practice, ways of thinking and methods of representation.
This chapter questions the validity of this position, suggesting the practice of interiors is neither young nor the inevitable result of architectural production. Rather it should be understood as a discipline in its own right offering an alternative knowledge base to that of its host. Starting with a description of what an interior knowledge base might be, the chapter explores why it is sometimes seen in contradiction to architectural production, and concludes by suggesting a better understanding of the relationship between architecture and interiors is needed as there can be no inside without an outside and vice versa.
