Modern Interiors Research Centre

Identity and Habitation: Modern Interiors Research Centre

Kingston School of Art's Modern Interiors Research Centre is the world's leading research centre in its field. It is dedicated to the study of interiors and their contents from the mid 19th century to the present day. Research is historically focused and consideration is also given to contemporary practice and theory.

The Research Centre places its emphasis is on identity and habitation – the experience of being inside spaces. It explores the interior as an interface between architecture and designed objects. Research fields include design and architectural history; and visual, material, personal and spatial culture.

The Modern Interiors Research Centre is part of a large international network, staging conferences and events and engaging with international authorities and institutions. It works with, for example, partners as diverse as the V&A and the Geffrye Museum to the Universities of Melbourne and Oviedo.

Its influential publications have included Designing the Modern Interior (2010) and Biography, Identity and the Interior (2013). The Research Centre launched the academic journal Interiors: Design Architecture Culture in 2010.

The overarching aim of the Research Centre is to create a body of knowledge that will inform interior design knowledge worldwide.

Identity and Habitation: Modern Interiors Research Centre

Catharine Rossi, Space Electronic - Then and Now installation at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale (credit: Gilly Booth)

Modern Interior Research Centre MIRC 2021 Webinar: Interiors in the era of Covid-19

Wednesday, 24 March 2021: 10.30am–1.10pm and 2–5.10pm (GMT)

The Covid19 pandemic has caused people, worldwide, to be confined to their homes for extended periods of time. In addition to their traditional roles as places of refuge and nurturing, homes have had to accommodate the additional roles of schools, gymnasia, restaurants, cinemas, offices, making spaces and more. Above all, the home has been looked to as a site to support and enhance the well-being of its inhabitants in a variety of ways. Many of these new functions are tech-enabled. At the same time, the work and hospitality spaces in our city centre buildings sit empty.

MIRC's Webinar, Interiors in the era of Covid-19, reflects on the complex ways in which interiors have responded historically, and are responding, to Coronavirus and similar historical crises. Papers will address the multiple transformations that have taken place in interiors, both private and public, as a result of these and focus on how this has affected our perceptions of, and our relationships with, the interiors we inhabit.

View programme and videos

Programme for the event

Health and well-being

10:30–10:40 Ken Fallas, Architect, Seoul, South Korea and EKaterina Kochetkova, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, South Korea: Virus, space and inequality: Korean design strategies for a post-Covid architecture. Watch this session here.
10:40–10:50 Winnie Yl Chan, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China: House and health when the two worlds collide: the transformation of the multi-functionality in the urban spaces, interiors and the case of Hong Kong (1900 and present)
10:50–11:00 Selin Geerinckx and Els de Vos, University of Antwerp, Belgium: How Lea Daan brought body movement into 1930s Belgian homes. Watch this session here.
11:00–11:15 Panel discussion Watch this session here.
11:15–11:30 Q&A session

Beyond the home

11:30–11:40 Elena Elgani, Francesco Scullica and Umberto Monchiero, Politecnico di Milano, Italy: Sustainable community workspaces in the post COVID-19 era
11:40–11:50 Nurefsan Sönmez and Belgin Terim Çavka, Yasar University Selcuk Yasar Campus, Izmir, Turkey: Transformation of hospital areas in the world after Covid-19 pandemic
11:50–12:00 Panel discussion
12:00–12:10 Q&A session
12:10–12:25 Break

Educating interior designers

12:25–12:35 Aslihan Senel, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey: Connected interiors as an architectural design studio
12:35–12:45 Nina Bassoli, Roberto Gigliotti and Davide Tommaso Ferrando, UniBZ Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy: Musée Domino: a virtual museum of the domesticity in lockdown
12:45–12:55 Panel discussion
12:55–13:05 Q&A session
13:05–14:00 Break

The role of collections and museums

14:00–14:10 Lois Weinthal, Ryerson University, Canada, Patrick Macklin, Glasgow School of Art, UK and Wen Liang, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, China: Interior archipelago – postcards from our islands
14:10–14:20 Stefania Napolitano, MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy: MAXXI EDUCATION The domestic body
14:20–14:30 Danielle Patten, Museum of the Home, London, UK: Wellbeing in the home during the coronavirus pandemic: Stay Home- rapid response collecting project at the Museum of the Home
14:30–14:45 Panel discussion
14:45–15:00 Q&A session

Working from home

15:00–15:10 Marcela Torres Molano, Greg Labrosse and Vanessa Sicotte, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada: The possibilities and limitations of working from home: the experience of a transitional justice case worker at the Columbian Truth Commission
15:10–15:20 Ye Xu, Katharina Borsi and Jonathan Hale, University of Nottingham, UK: Working at home: architects during the pandemic in China
15:20–15:30 Fiona Del Puppo, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland: Lockdown experts? Interiors of women working online and at home
15:30–15:45 Panel discussion
15:45–16:00 Q&A session
16:00–16:10 Break

Representing home

16:10–16:20 Shellie Holden, Swansea College of Art, Wales, UK: Performing the matrixial – homework/housework in a Covid climate
16:20–16:30 Inga Bryden, University of Winchester, UK: At home on screen: objects and small comforts
16:30–16:40 Nicola Blake, Ashworth Parkes Architects, Cambridge, UK: Representations of the home – during Covid-19 lockdown
16:40–16:55 Panel discussion
16:55–17:10 Q&A session
17:10 Closing of webinar