Rethinking Design and Interiors: Human Beings in the Built Environment

Interior design helps to shape all aspects of our lives and has now come of age both intellectually and professionally. This text sets out to change and clarify the perceptions and misconceptions about contemporary interior design by examining some of the key issues that define what it is, how it is different from architecture, what specific skills it requires and what design problems it solves. The book also aspires to provide new creative possibilities which can help not only to expand and distinguish the discipline but also elevate its stature and esteem. Provocatively written by one of the foremost educators and practitioners in the field, this book will be essential for all interior design students and teachers, as well as appealing to practitioners.

Rethinking Design and Interiors explores the position of design in relation to our complex and ever-changing world and promotes a deeper knowledge--with input from the arts, sciences, and technology--that will support design's integral role in the advancement of humankind in the twenty-first century.

"Inspiring! Shashi Caan brilliantly proposes, and superbly justifi es, a radical, liberating, inside-out rethinking of the fundamental design process, not only interior design, but all the design professions, as her vision for their shared goal becomes humanity's well-being."
Richard Farson, PhD
Psychologist, author and President, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute

"Caan locates design and interiors at the intersection of some of the most challenging issues facing society today and in the process unleashes the vast transformative potential of human imagination to build a better world."
Joel Towers
Architect and Executive Dean, Parsons The New School For Design

"Rethinking Design and Interiors reveals the historical continuum of the philosophy, psychology, poetics, and alchemy of design, what it means, and why it matters to all of us."
Deborah Patton
Founder and Executive Director of Applied Brilliance

"Educators globally must take note of the changes to design education this referenced book will suggest... and how that new education will shape the future, value, and prominence of the design professions in the built environment community."
Denise A. Guerin, PhD
Morse-Alumni Distinguished Professor, College of Design, University
of Minnesota and President, Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC)
2010-2011

"This extraordinary book takes us on a journey through the history of our complex interaction with the spaces we inhabit, and makes a compelling argument for designers, artists, and scientists to work in collaboration to create the blueprint for a more responsible and sustainable environment and our future collective well-being."
Ian Howard
Artist and Principal, Edinburgh College of Art

"Rethinking Design and Interiors is a brilliant study of the history and meaning of interior space that will appeal as much to philosophers of culture as it will to professional designers...There are few books about design that move so confi dently and elegantly through the spaces of history, philosophy, psychology, and the professional practice of design as Shashi Caan's."
Mark Breitenberg, PhD
Provost, California College of the Arts and President, International
Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) 2009-2011