Interior Architecture Commons^™

From Centralized To Decentralized Care: Assessing The Role Of Design In Cardiovascular Unit Performance, Lindsey Fay

Interiors Faculty Publications

This report presents a comprehensive pre- and post-occupancy evaluation of the University of Kentucky HealthCare Cardiovascular Unit, conducted through a collaborative effort between the College of Design, College of Communication and Information, UK HealthCare, and GBBN Architects. The study examines the transition from a centralized to a decentralized care delivery model within a newly constructed hospital environment, with the goal of understanding how spatial design influences healthcare delivery, staff performance, and patient experience.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques, including behavioral mapping, communication tracking, pedometer data, acoustic measurements, and staff and user feedback. …

Unscripted Urban Interior, Paramita Atmodiwirjo, Yandi Andri Yatmo

Interiority

The urban interior has emerged as a site of unscripted performance. The unscripted urban interior can be understood as a dynamic field where spatial conditions, social practices, and temporal change interact to produce emergent and contingent spatial realities beyond the original script. Through unscripted performance, the urban interior becomes a site of transformative potential, where various forms of practices emerge to transform, appropriate, and mediate the situations. The articles in this Interiority issue highlight the indeterminate characters of the urban interior and the possible transformation practices emerging from such urban contexts through various techniques and media that create distinctive values …

Unplanned Public Nature Interiority, Kendra Locklear Ordia

Interiority

This paper advances a theory of urban interiority through the concept of public nature interiority, integrating ecological thinking into the spatial, sensory, and temporal conditions of exterior spaces that feel interior. Drawing on works by Tine Poot, Richard Sennett, Liz Teston, and Suzie Attiwill, it challenges binary distinctions between interior and exterior, emphasising relational and dynamic urban conditions. Using Attiwill's notions of collective individuation and an ecology of subjectivity, interiority is reframed as being shaped not only by human perception and experience with nature but also by biotic relations and multispecies interactions. The theory is situated within terrain vague—indeterminate, overlooked …

Space As Experienced: Rendering Urban Interiority Through Research-By-Drawing, Sarah Javed Shah, Giulia Setti

Interiority

Architectural discourse has long privileged space as formally constituted—defined through geometry, enclosure, and typological classification—while its experiential and relational dimensions remain insufficiently examined. This article addresses that gap by proposing a methodological claim: the sequential and cumulative use of analytical drawing enables the investigation of spatial experience in ways that formal analysis and phenomenological description alone cannot achieve. Positioned as an epistemic framework, the research employs drawing not as representation but as a structured mode of inquiry. Five analytical lenses—liminality, permeability, intermingling, ephemerality, and complex interiority—are operationalised through a sequence of drawings that isolate and reconstruct the relational conditions through …

Villa Verde As A Quasi-Object: The Renegotiation Of Spatial Boundaries And Interiority, Tugba Cestel, Senem Kaymaz

Interiority

An architectural object interacts with its user through its functional and formal qualities. However, when stripped of these attributes, it discloses the potential to transform the phenomenal system it inhabits alongside the subject. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s hammer analysis and Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, this study explores the relationship between a user and an architectural object that lacks a predefined form or function. It examines how the subject’s intervention can reconfigure such an object into a quasi-object. This relationship establishes a conceptual bridge that can be read through both phenomenological and relational frameworks. In this domain, where spatial boundaries and …

Meanwhile Interiors, Interiority And Becoming Exterior, Cathy Smith

Interiority

This paper explores the resonances between stakeholder conceptions of 'meanwhile' or transient urban interiors and the notion of interiority as a mobile construct intertwined with wider social and material forces. The focus is on the positioning of these interiors in relation to broader community and neighbourhood agendas, invoking what Jill Stoner describes as a becoming exterior. Although the so-called 'meanwhile use' of vacant or sub-market-condition buildings is an increasingly common tool for activating and managing underused property assets in global cities, much of the existing discourse focuses on policy and placemaking implications rather than design dimensions. Drawing on interviews with …

Postcolonial Cosmogram: Modern Interiority Of The Methodist Heritage Gallery In Sibu, Sarawak, Sanjeh Kumar Raman, Tong Jia Chian

Interiority

This study examines the conservation and transformation of the Ching Ang Methodist Church into the Methodist Heritage Gallery (MHG) in Sibu, Sarawak, highlighting its role in placemaking and identity construction within the Foochow-Methodist community. By exploring the interplay between colonial modernity, heritage interpretation, and ethno-religious provenance, the research situates MHG as a critical site of memory and cultural articulation. Using an interpretivist approach, this study employs building surveys, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis to investigate the architectural, social, and symbolic dimensions of the MHG. The findings reveal that the gallery's adaptive reuse not only preserves Methodist-Foochow heritage but also serves …

Modern Instructional Science, Ai Integrated Pedagogy & Innovation In Higher Education, Yasmeen Ahmed

Presentations and Posters

The rapid evolution of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping teaching, learning, and knowledge production across higher education. This one-day faculty development workshop, Modern Instructional Science, AI-Integrated Pedagogy & Innovation in Higher Education, explores contemporary approaches to designing, delivering, and enhancing student-centered learning experiences in both face-to-face and online environments. The workshop introduces key principles of instructional science, course design, active learning, formative assessment, and learner engagement, supported by established educational theories and evidence-based best practices. Participants examine strategies for developing well-organized, outcome-aligned courses; fostering collaboration and meaningful interaction; and enhancing student success through effective instructional planning …

Soft Korsi: An Embodied Spatial Interior System For Communal Warmth, Faezeh Panahandeh

Graduate Final Projects

ABSTRACT

Soft Korsi: An Embodied Spatial Interior System for Communal Warmth reconceptualizes the historic Iranian Korsi as an innovative textile-based interior system. Traditionally, the Korsi functioned not only as a heating device but also as a spatial, material, cultural, and embodied system, which brought people together around a shared warm focal point. The integration of a heat source, textile coverings, floor seating arrangements, closeness of bodies, and domestic traditions related to warmth made possible a collective experience, rather than an individual or environmental one.

This design project seeks to address the disappearance of the Korsi from contemporary domestic environments as …

Utilizing Deep Learning To Generate Biomorphic Furniture Design: A Generative Approach, Asmaa Medhat Abd El Aziz Mostafa, Doaa Abdelrahman Mohamed Goda, Dalia Mohamed Ezzat

Journal of Art, Design and Music

This research paper highlights the relatively unexplored potential of deep learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, to radically transform design in general, and specifically in the field of furniture design, by creating new design concepts inspired by living organisms such as marine biology. The main objective of this research is to explore the role of deep learning and artificial intelligence as tools for generating innovative and novel furniture designs inspired by marine organisms (marine biology). The research followed experimental methodology through a prompt engineering-based protocol, using ChatGPT-4 to produce an optimized prompt to be subsequently used on the (Prome AI) …

Where My Memory Settles, Rachel Kobb

Masters Theses

My memory is blurry but ever present in an atmospheric state. Through my investigations of memory and sensorial experience, this thesis is an attempt to understand how the body recalls the spaces I have spent the most time: my various homes through life.

The output of this thesis is a paper installation that layers and translates spatial qualities of my past homes. The home is not a neutral container, but instead a space that should support a sense of retreat and security. Drawing upon Gaston Bachelard’s zones of experience, I explore how a domestic space is moved through distinct zones. …

Between Nature And Architecture : A Dialogue Of Five Elements, Niexiangyi He

Masters Theses

Rooted in classical Chinese cosmology, the Daoist Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) describe dynamic cycles of mutual generation (sheng)—in which one element produces or supports another—and restraint (ke)—in which elements regulate or limit one another to maintain balance. Rather than a system of symbolic representation, these interactions outline a relational model of equilibrium based on interdependence and continuous transformation. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water can inform a contemporary design framework for interior and architectural practice. It interprets these cycles as a form of spatial logic that guides material selection, structural organization, environmental modulation, and experiential sequencing, …

Soft Bodies, Hard Frames, Emily Zhang

Masters Theses

Silk is delicate yet strong, responsive to light and air, dependent on living processes and careful labor. These qualities position silk not only as a material object, but as an instrument capable of organizing space. Rather than functioning solely as a surface or decorative textile, silk can operate as a spatial generator, shaping enclosure, movement, and environmental conditions.

For centuries, domestic courtyard houses in the Jiangnan region, located south of the Yangtze River, evolved alongside sericulture, forming spaces that were attuned to the environmental and material requirements of silk. Architectural elements such as courtyards, screened openings, flexible interiors, and canal-directed …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Fetishismus:Facism, Sodomy, And The Exhibition, Matthew P. Gershovich

Masters Theses

Fetishismus examines the contemporary dislocation between homosexuality and queerness. Homosexuality is the biological, innate quality of same-sex attraction. Queerness is rooted in deviance, perversion, and sociologically attached to the “other.” Although almost always used in an explicitly homosexual connotation, “queerness” is not entirely contingent on the physical engagement of homosexual acts. In historical usage, queer is used as a pejorative adjective, implying a lack of masculinity with the intent to invoke repulsion. In contemporary parlance the two are treated as synonymous. This intertwined relationship relies on the forced lack of social and spatial belonging that is rooted in a foundational …

The Birdwatching Pause: Reframing Campus Life Through Everyday Bird Encounters, Katherine Zeng

Masters Theses

Birdwatching, typically framed as a leisure pursuit removed from everyday life, becomes here the organizing logic for a three-site campus route of restorative pause. The thesis departs from the assumption that nature must be sought out and instead asks what happens when the birds already present in urban space are made legible through design.

Three existing RISD buildings anchor the project, each organized around a distinct mode of encounter. At Carr Haus Café, a furniture-scaled insertion creates conditions for attentional reset through passive listening rather than active looking. At North Hall, a semi-open balcony garden introduces incidental, distanced contact with …

Returning To The Hand, Tatum Dodd

Masters Theses

Historical preservation is traditionally understood as the act of protecting objects and buildings from change, reinstating and stabilizing the past so they may endure into the future. When preservation seeks to freeze and resolve the past, it separates it from the reality of our multi-layered histories and the traces of labor, repair, and care unfolding across generations. Through a human-centered lens that allows one to touch, uncover, and redefine, we are able to relate to our built environments through an ethical practice of care, inviting new avenues of dialogue and engagement with our past.

Recording traces of the hand within …

The Amplifier: Small Spaces, Loud Futures, Szewai Hong

Masters Theses

Once nicknamed “Rock City,” Allston, MA has long been a creative hub known for its grassroots music culture. Historically the neighborhood has been home to many independent music spaces, nurturing generations of musicians. Relentless real estate development, the expansion of nearby institutions and ongoing inflation, has made the neighborhood increasingly unaffordable for the creatives and forced many to leave, diluting the once vibrant music community. Simultaneously, the shift toward digital music consumption has contributed to the disappearance of physical spaces where people once gathered to discover, discuss, and experience music collectively.

This thesis responds to these circumstances through an intervention …

Strata: Portraits Of The Alvarado & The Southwest, Kayla R. Duncan

Masters Theses

History isn't the past; it is a continuing unfolding of the moment, yet we cannot feel time. We see traces of age through patina on copper, the wrinkles on a face from decades of laughter, or the holes in your favorite shirt. Similarly within architecture, what remains: ruins and fragments serve as layers that indicate the passage of time. In what ways are these layers exposed? Hidden? Erased? How do we determine what layers are worthy to be erased, maintained, or glorified as use of a structure or place continues to evolve through time?

The history of Albuquerque spans the …

The Right To Withdraw: Soft Boundaries And Material Refuge In The Workplace, Zhihao (Sky) Xing

Masters Theses

Traditionally, architecture has provided physical protection through solid structures and defined boundaries, while modern interior spaces have evolved further to serve function, efficiency, and the operational needs of society. These include open-plan offices, art school studios, and other public spaces like libraries. Although physical rigidity and operational efficiency have been well served by the modern built environment, the psychological experiences of those within it remain largely overlooked - a lack of privacy, emotional support, and space for emotional withdrawal.

This research explores why contemporary workplaces often expose individuals to sensory overload and why people often retreat to stairwells, restrooms, or …

Where The Walls Came Down: Reimagining The Disaster-Induced Modern Ruin, Zhenmi Tang

Masters Theses

In contemporary society, large-scale destructive events are continuously generating a new architectural condition: the modern ruin. Unlike historical ruins shaped and legitimized through time, the remnants left by war, wildfires, and other natural disasters remain embedded in lived reality and collective memory. These environments are not distant artifacts of the past, but recently inhabited spaces whose material presence and social meaning remain active. However, prevailing reconstruction practices tend to prioritize complete demolition and site clearance, followed by rebuilding on restored empty ground. While this approach provides reliability in terms of safety, engineering, and regulation, it often interrupts the material and …

Care Ecologies Between Knots, Eliza R. Marris

Masters Theses

Discarded fibers like raw wool behave the way harm reduction does. Harm reduction resists stigma and works to move beyond assumptions and oversimplifications of substance use and addiction. Wool is irregular, complicated, and emotionally charged. It resists compression and maintains its own being even when pulled apart. Working with raw wool is in relationship with complexity, as is harm reduction.

At its core, harm reduction is grounded in thoughtfulness and empathy towards people, their lived experience, and its nuances. It is a witness to lives, memories, and imprints, acknowledging the entangled realities of addiction. Our detachment from fiber remainders, materials …

After Yellow Horse: From Passive Shelter To A Self-Sustaining Cycle, Xinyuan Liu

Masters Theses

Spatial flexibility—specifically, the ability of a single building to shift between therapeutic and productive use—offers a critical alternative to the institutional passivity of conventional care facilities, repositioning architecture as an active agent in both the financial sustainability of nonprofit organizations and the social recovery of their patients.

During my time volunteering at Yellow Horse Equine Therapy Center in Ashaway, Rhode Island, the core contradictions of the traditional equine therapy model became visible firsthand. Yellow Horse had operated for years on goodwill and volunteers. The daily reality of the facility was one of persistent understaffing: barn chores, groundskeeping, and routine maintenance …

Feeling Through Space:Designing Emotion In Space Through Alice In Wonderland, Xuanyu Yang

Masters Theses

Emotion is the most direct bridge between human experience and architectural space, but design often treats feelings as a side product. This thesis challenges that idea by asking a specific question: can a designer intentionally use spatial qualities to move a person through a defined emotional sequence? And if so, can that process be documented clearly enough to become a repeatable method?

To test this, the project designs a spatial version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland as an immersive theater experience. The narrative is not told through text, performance, or screen, but entirely through the physical qualities of a …

Lace Memory Lab, Xinyu Han

Masters Theses

Lace, originally developed from European religious garments, has long been treated as a decorative and secondary textile craft. With its delicate hand-weaving, intricate patterns, and lightweight quality, lace has been widely used in clothing and furniture, it has always remained at the edge of spatial design. This thesis focuses on lace as a material memory, exploring how its characteristics can be translated into architectural language and integrated into the spatial practice of adaptive reuse of old buildings. When I think of lace, I notice the similar nature of its craftsmanship and spatial concepts.

What happens when lace is no longer …

Providence Puzzle:Exhibition Design As Urban Spatial Practice, Ye Chen

Masters Theses

Providence is a city shaped by past industrial production, immigrant communities, artistic practice, waterfront renewal, and urban redevelopment. Its identity exists not only in historical remnants, but also in the cultural atmosphere created through the ongoing interaction between past and present. Former factories, river infrastructure, neighborhood streets, public parks and scenes of everyday life together form an urban narrative that continues to evolve. Yet existing methods of presenting Providence’s history and culture remain limited to informational signage, commemorative markers, or one-directional communication, offering little incentive for people to stop, read, explore, or actively engage. As a city rich in both …

Fallen Leaves:The Unseen, Forgotten, Presences That Live In Us, Juhee Cho

Masters Theses

The fallen leaf is a material figure of the unseen, forgotten moments that have made us and holds us still while remaining outside our sight. In urban environments, fallen leaves are managed as seasonal waste, collected and quickly separated from everyday encounter. Yet within ecological systems, they continue to participate in cycles of regeneration, becoming the soil that sustains new life. This quiet continuation is unavailable to the eye, yet known by the body. As a proof of this, the leaf’s transformation reveals itself not to the mind, but to the hand. The curling fiber wears out, the deepening brown, …

Domesticating Duration, Xiaoyu Lan

Masters Theses

Inspired by the novel Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, this thesis explores the subjective human perception of time. To break away from the monotonous product display model of traditional retail, the design transforms a four-story building into a novel experiential showroom infused with avant-garde exhibition qualities. Using the "home" as a narrative thread, the design guides visitors through everyday domestic scenes—the bedroom, living room, bathroom, and dining room. These spaces are deconstructed into four distinct experiences of temporal flow: Pause, Fast-Forward, Slow-Motion, and Rewind. Guided by Peter Zumthor's Atmospheres and referencing relevant artworks, the design translates the abstract concept of …

Healing In The Flow: Reimagining Public Well-Being Through The Adaptive Reuse Of The Heritage Park Visitor Center, Yaqi Zhang

Masters Theses

This thesis proposes the adaptive reuse of the Heritage Park Visitor Center in Fall River, Massachusetts, as a community oriented environment for rest, care, and social connection along the Taunton River waterfront. Although the park provides public access to nature, the existing building does not support everyday forms of well being such as pause, reflection, quiet recovery, or informal gathering. In many public spaces across New England, wellness remains separated from civic life and is often treated as private, specialized, or secondary.

In response, the project rethinks self care not as a private luxury, but as a shared spatial condition …

The Marathon Without Running: Experiencing A Runner's Sensorial Journey, Harin Kim

Masters Theses

The marathon is defined not by motion alone, but by the changing conditions a body moves through—and remains within—over time. Breath, cadence, heat, sound, crowd compression and attention fluctuate, producing phases that structure the race from within. These interior states are difficult to access by spectators from the sidelines, yet they are precisely what shape the runner’s experience.

This thesis begins with a simple but unconventional question: How can an exhibition translate the runner’s physical sensations and emotions into a multidimensional experience for spectators who do not run? Through a sequence of pop-up exhibitions placed along the New York City …