Domestechtopias

Domestechtopias explores various utopian and aspirational themes that exist between domestic dwelling and ‘smart’ technologies that co-habit within that interior. We discusses new ways for IE, Interior Educators, to reengage with the domestic and argue that smart ‘tech’ is, in effect, homeless kit until ‘housed’ by the interior. Domestechtopias describes a portmanteau morphing of the terms domestic > technology > utopia and explores how dwelling has changed to accommodate physical, temporal, spatial and now virtual experiences. Domestechtopias is now the hub to new social encounters now redefining society but far from being a sanctuary from society, new behaviours enacted through new technology, are transforming society and altering the interiority of domestic space. The strictly demarcated boundary between public/private and home/work suggests an increasingly porous place. This shift suggests a reconfiguration of our digital, familial and spatial maps into new interior experiences but also new opportunities to revisit the domestic - what Castell’s described as spaces-of-flow. Whilst anxieties and antagonism may exist between those who design interiors and those who decorate them, we can bypass these restrictive historical, decorative or architectural lenes. The domestic is a neglected territory and our spiritual origin, however, much of the recent research into digital interventions around the domestic interior seem driven, not by interiors but by interdisciplinary institutions, companies and research groups. Domestechtopias invites the IE community to contribute to wider disciplinary discussion on the impact interactive experiences and responsive environments are having in transforming interiors’ future. This suggests obvious problems; 1) that the domestic, whilst symbolizing interiors spiritual home, remains a relatively neglected territory in mainstream Interior education, 2) interiors might benefit from looking through other conceptual and research lenses, other than architecture, to identify new interior directions, and 3) collaboration, not segregation, will drive and transform interior futures.