Designing Spatial Culture

Designing Spatial Culture investigates a powerful experiential dialogue formed between the habitation of space and a diversified cultural realm. This creative proposition binds and positions human activity and experience framing its histories, currency and future. Whilst the book distinguishes between the conditions of the existing urban/ architecture/ interior canon, it embraces a new agency of space, showcasing the encounters, assemblies and designs that shape human behaviours and the cultural forms of the built environment.

Using authoritative case studies, the book examines many locations and spaces, ranging from new urban landscapes, historical domestic spaces and contemporary architecture. It embraces the most lavish and flamboyant to the most simplistic and minimal, establishing a connected cultural narrative. The book shifts the focus in the spatial realm from an object-based experience (where space is filled with things) to a more complete immersive experience (combining physical and digital).

A key part of this exploration is the relationship between the architecture and the interior which is often the most predominant spatial experience and fundamental to the understanding spatial experience and existing cultures. Without the architectural enclosure, the interior would lose its site context and structure for its existence. Without an interior, architecture would not fully develop an engaging spatial experience for the user. The book rationalises this through extended use of a spatial probe which documents and summarises an evidence-based research project capturing spatial culture data from a predominantly domestic setting. The book is essential reading for students and researchers in architecture, interior design and urban design.

Roderick Adams is Deputy Head of Design, researcher and senior academic at the School of Design, University of Northumbria. His work develops new interdisciplinary research that connects education and the international professional practices of design. His current research projects explore spatial and interior cultures, workplace design, productivity, design anthropology and sustainable design futures.