Penny Sparke

The Modern Interior: A Space, a Place or a Matter of Taste?

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of the work that has addressed the subject of the “modern interior,” showing how it has been discussed within a wide variety of contexts, including that of architectural and design modernism (which emphasized the concept of “space”); that of the social, cultural, and psychological links between interiors and their modern inhabitants (which focused on the idea of “place”); and that of the decorative arts (which prioritized the importance of “taste”). It offers a historiographical approach to the “modern interior” and seeks to demonstrate both the subjects fundamental multidisciplinarity and its inherent complexity. The article suggests that the study of the modern interior must embrace that complexity, recognizing and acknowledging the importance of both modernism and modernity, as well as that of the roles of “interiority” and “representation,” both visual and literary.

Nature, Craft, Domesticity, and the Culture of Consumption: the Feminine Face of Design in Italy, 1945–70

Summary This article sets out to outline the way in which existing narratives dealing with the development of modern design in post‐1945 Italy have ignored those aspects of the story which do not concur with a characterization of that phenomenon that relies on the concepts of rationality, mass production and the impact of new materials. By focusing on and elaborating a number of ‘other’ themes—namely those of nature, craft, domesticity and the culture of consumption—this study sets out to redress this imbalance and to introduce the possibility of a new reading of modern design in Italy which can be seen to be rooted in a set of cultural values which are more obviously feminine’ in nature.

Shaping the American interior : structures, contexts and practices

A set of essays focused on various aspects of the emergence of the US interior design profession

Ambiguity and Permeability in Historic Modern Interiors: A Challenge for Cultural Heritage and Social Sustainability

The restoration and conservation of the interior spaces in nineteenth- and twentieth-century buildings (described collectively in this essay as ‘modern interiors’) play an important part in the contemporary world of cultural heritage and social sustainability. If these buildings are to take on lasting new roles that will make significant contributions to the lives of people who will visit or inhabit them, architects and interior designers, working with historians and other cultural heritage professionals, need to address the numerous subtle ways in which interiors have acquired, and continue to acquire, their multi-layered and constantly evolving definitions and meanings.

Book Review: Design and Feminism: Re-Visioning Spaces, Places and Everyday Things

believe that human beings are equally worthy of human dignity and respect (2000: 198). While it is apparent that she is seeking to avoid an overly narrow definition of what ‘counts’ as feminism, there are many feminists, I would venture, who would find such a description of feminism rather dubious. Moreover, although Ackerly argues that third world feminist social criticism shares much with other feminist theory, and claims that it is ‘practically grounded, relational, and contextual’ (2000: 197), there is very little mention of relationality and contextualsim in the book. That said, this is an important work of feminist theory that is committed to tackling the problem of inequality. As such it is a book that should be read by anyone interested in feminist theory, democratic theory or development studies.