The Spatial Herbarium | QCA Interior Design Students
A herbarium is a collection of once living specimens that are preserved, labelled and stored in an organized manner, for both education and research.
Interior design is more than a spatial arrangement or a collection of objects. Interiors constitute the most fragile feature of design because they are often temporary and secondary additions. The interior has always been indistinguishable from the inhabitant’s inner lives – let us call it their interiority. Various historical studies have documented how an interior’s identity can evolve independently of the built, external structure of a building. They can be conceived simultaneously with the building, but they are also easily transferrable and adaptable. Reflecting on the interior means debating our interiority, more precisely clarifying our understanding of the past, both its aesthetic values and our specific knowledge of style, including the role that fashion plays. Reflecting on interior design is not just a question of arranging and designing furniture, choosing appropriate colours or adapting past building to new requirements; it is a question of building up a scenography for our subjective life, our values, emotions and thoughts.
