Abstract:
The cultural role of the interior artefact, through the representation and interpretation
of meaning, is considered in this article. This follows Umberto Eco’s moderate
hypothesis of culture in which all cultural phenomena can be studied as contents of
a semiotic activity and in accordance with Jeff Lewis’s construct of culture as a
collection of meanings. The ‘interior artefact’ that is considered here is the physical
manifestation of interior design as a professional practice in the built environment
and not a general product of human activity. It is assumed that successful interior
artefacts are dependent on the generation of meaningful images and their appropriate
spatial interpretation. The interior artefact is a material artefact that creates and
communicates meaning; it offers the framework for situated meaning and is the result
of that meaning. The interior artefact is the spatial embodiment of the visual identity
imagined by the interior designer on behalf of the client. In this context, interior design
is considered as a cultural activity with importance for human development, which
includes the utilisation and development of identity. The article considers identity to
involve more complexity than merely expressing categories of belonging (such as
race and gender). In interior design the generation and interpretation of meaning is
dependent on the visual presence of cultural discourses; the article concludes with
a brief discussion of some of these.
