Javed Shah / The Interpretation of “Interiority” through Research in Design Context of Public Space

The Interpretation of “Interiority” through Research in Design Context of Public Space Exploring the Continuity of Interior into Urban (or Exterior) and Vice Versa

Author: Sarah Javed Shah, PhD Candidate - AUID, Politecnico di Milano; Assistant Professor, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Pakistan; Registered Architect, PCATP

Supervisor: Carles Muro, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Politecnico di Milano; Registered Architect, COAC

Research stage: Initial doctoral stage: 1st year PhD Candidate

Category: Paper

DDR Statement

The design-driven research (DDr) is a novel methodology in the discourse of architecture; the revolution in the tools and processes of architecture conducive to a holistic approach reaches out for a liaison between design and research. Design is primarily about experiences and lies in the realm of practical knowledge while research implicates the scholarship to seek meaning and understanding of the phenomena. Both research and design can also be seen to set forth a proposition of a hypothesis or idea and then examining to check its validity. Traditional methods of research face certain challenges in relating to the practice, similarly, the practice has been apparently isolated from research, resulting in distinct polarization; DDr abridges both the realms through their integration by appreciating their individual value and recognizing their limitations.

The paper proposes an interdisciplinary approach towards the understanding of the “interiority”, with the aspiration to develop the hypothesis through “research in design context” of the design practice of urban (or exterior) public spaces. The selected projects have been re-drawn and analysed to illustrate different types of interiorities found in their design contexts, with an assumption that interiority is a shared underlying aspect contributing towards their effective public qualities. In the broader context of my PhD research, I will analyse whether this paradigm of interiorized public spaces can be reversed and explore how these interpretations of interiority can be “exteriorised” in the case of interior public spaces. The diagram below presents the components of design of public space and their contextual relationship, followed by the constructed methodology of research in design context.