ABSTRACT
Viennese architect and designer Ernst Lichtblau’s pedagogy and exhibition design as the founding head of the department of Interior Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) was impactful in forming the school’s design curriculum in the 1940s–1950s. Lichtblau’s experience with Central European pedagogy informed a reorientation of the curriculum—the study of what was previously termed “interior decoration” became “interior architecture.” By importing European ideas of architecture and design practice, Lichtblau’s cross-disciplinary interior architecture program helped legitimize a field often bound by class stereotypes. This chapter reconsiders not only the displacement of Lichtblau the individual, but also the transplantation of Central European design education ideas to an American context. Further, this chapter seeks to expand upon discussions of the Central European influence on American design education beyond the legacy of the Bauhaus. It also demonstrates the potential for displacement and lost meaning that can occur through translation. Reconsidering interior architecture in the German-speaking context reveals the changing attitudes toward gender, class, and interior design in the postwar United States and Europe.
