History of Interior Archtiecture

Rigged Bench

by mcoon4 | May 30, 2023

One version of a hostile design that can be seen on the University of Oregon’s campus. It is a bench that has different levels of height for each bench. This is a hostile design because no one is able to lay flat on the bench and sleep on it. This takes away a category of group, like the unhoused who are trying to find a place to lay or sleep. 

This is an example of hostile design. It does not allow for anyone to lie on the bench.

Compassionate Design

by mcoon4 | May 24, 2023

James Petty writes an intriguing article about the design choices that were executed in London. The incident that happened in London had to do with spikes being placed so the unhoused could not linger or sleep outside of luxury apartments. The hostile design causes a lot of disruption in communities, which can be clearly seen in Petty’s article. Social control is now entering the design world in terms of street design. Some hostile designs are excluding specific groups from neighborhoods. Gentrification was a main topic for Petty, and can deliberately be seen in some neighborhoods, especially in this scenario with the London spikes. Petty describes the social and ethical issues that are in the dilemma of hostile design. He wants the focus to be switched to creating housing for the groups that can not afford it and supporting them. Petty believes there should be a different view on the group, rather than looking at how to remove them from certain areas to how we can help them. He wants there to be more of an equitable and compassionate view of urban planning. 

The University of Oregon does a pretty good job of avoiding hostile designs. They are inclusive and think compassionately about their designs. The Knight Library is a great example. There are a number of benches around the facility and when you walk in there are plenty of areas to sit. The steps leading up to the doors of the library are welcoming and provide a space that allows for different groups to use the space and building. There are no spaces that direct a group somewhere else. Public libraries are great spaces to bring different communities together and create an equitable space for everyone. The Knight Library has an inclusive design and values the diversity of groups that are able to interact in the space. The scenery is impressive and there a spaces of privacy and openness surrounding the buildings. The architecture was able to foster a place that was designed with compassion and inclusion.

Chair Diversity

by mcoon4 | May 17, 2023

This article talks about the discrimination of furniture within gender. They mention the different chair types that are distributed throughout the office. Women are associated with being secretaries in an office, unfortunately, and their chairs are a lot smaller and have a floating back which is assuming a small woman would sit there with her body perched up. Designers were creating the look of a piece of furniture based on genders. They were thinning about the stereotypes and trying to personalize each stereotype. One could look at this two ways: one being that they are conforming to the stereotypes, and another being that they were making diverse pieces of furniture. Still to this day there are significant assumptions in the designs of chairs and which genders they belong to. 

Beer Garden showcases a use of creating gender neutral sitting areas, at least for the outdoors. They made all the tables picnic tables, so the chairs that are being sat on are just benches. Picnic tables were a design that can be seen as gender neutral and opens up the door to being more diverse. The benches that are seen through cities also are benches, which is stereotypically where the unhoused sleep. I find this interesting because there is a community of people working to make benches and chairs diverse and useful for everyone, and then there is another group of people who are creating certain limitations on the benches so that the unhoused can not use the bench for their desired function. There is always going to be some problem and or something that needs to be changed in a design, unfortunately there may not be a way to create something that is applicable to all communities in the world. 

Seeing In

by mcoon4 | May 10, 2023

This reading talks about the modernist architect’s way of creating something that tears down all the walls of privacy. The main goal was to eliminate ornamentation and individual expression and create a design that was both functional and minimalistic. There is a correlation to the unhoused people in this article because they created a design that made much of the house visible to the public. Their lives were no longer hidden from the world. The transparent glass was seen everywhere. Modernist architects want to go into a discussion about inhabitants and homes. They want a home to be a place that was strictly a home, still, making it beautiful but designing it around the other elements that were important to the person living in the home and the environment that is being built on. Building a home that has both ornamentation and individual expression takes a lot of time and effort, the modernist architects were inspired by the mass production that was occurring during this time. The home in their view was a place to sleep and live, and it does not have to be an extension of someone. 

The Camp 13 cafe on campus dives into the appreciation of transparent glass. The four main exterior walls that make up the building are all made of transparent glass. You can’t fully see into the building because there is an architectural design that causes a barricade for the viewer to see through the transparent glass walls. The barricades create privacy for the individual inside, the people on the exterior can see inside the building if they are really looking. Compared to people who are unhoused they live in a life that is completely seen and have no choice but to be seen. The Camp 13 cafe creates an illusion that it is not private but the barricades ruin the illusion and the viewer realizes they can barely see in. The furniture inside is very minimal and wood based. Everything is very clean and minimalistic. The space allows all the light from the outside to come inside. To get into the buildings there are no doors and instead you have to press a button to have the door automatically open.