ABSTRACT
Television shows like Grand Designs (2010), One Square Meter (2014), Million Dollar Listing New York (2006) and The Block (2003) have piqued our interest in interior design and have raised our awareness to the fact that design choices communicate social and cultural meanings. If they didn’t, all our houses would look the same, or we wouldn’t take the time to choose one material, one colour or one texture over another. As we wander through our cities, we can ‘read’ the façades of buildings. A façade made of sandstone, for example, at least in Sydney, might mean strength, longevity and importance as many of the city’s governmental and stately buildings are made from this material, so when we use them for our homes, the meanings that are associated with this stone in different contexts are brought with them into the new context. We can also wander through a person’s home and get some idea of what the concept of home means to that person. Is it about being surrounded by memorabilia, or is it about minimalism and being unfettered?
