Launched in 1999, Idea Journal is an international, double-blind, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to publishing scholarly and practice-based research on interiors and interiority. Idea Journal is an open-access publication that produces one journal issue annually. It is a subsidiary of IDEA – The Interior Design / Interior Architecture Educators Association, Australia / New Zealand (www.idea-edu.com).
The Call:
Planning is a cornerstone of designing interior spaces, yet the complexity of planning to predict and accommodate the future actions, behaviours, and needs of would-be occupants is rarely resolved. In 1978, Robin Evans showed us that the "moral geography" of the plan had a mercurial relationship with the composition of interior spaces and that the ordinary, unassuming, and unexamined elements of domestic interiors change in time to reflect our emergent social values. At the same time, Manfredo Tafuri's analysis of the endless interiors in Piranesi's Il Campo Marzio dell'antica Roma ichnographia engraving showed us that the unprescribed interpretation of the plan was the only way to surpass the well-intentioned mistakes of functional and utopian idealism.
The 2025 issue of Idea Journal seeks contributions that explore the history, theory, practice, and futures of unplanned interiors. In opposition to the aesthetic idealisation of interior compositions in the commercial contexts of department stores, lifestyle magazines, and presentation drawings, it asks authors to consider the un-ideal interior. How do interior spaces work in ways that are unplanned, unforeseen, and unintended? What do instances of human action exceeding the prescriptive ideas of the plan tell us about who we are, our emergent social and moral values, and where these values are going?
Authors may wish to explore the possibilities and opportunities of spatial design that occur outside the conventions and limitations of the drawn plan itself. Since refuting functional planning, there has been an explosion in artistic, spatial design drawing methods. How have such new approaches to drawing, image production, and visualisation impacted concepts and practices of spatial design? What are the new aesthetics for conceptualising and constructing interior space beyond illustrated idealism, and how do these drawing methods exceed the strategic foresight of the designer?
Other authors may consider unplanned interiors by examining examples of haphazard, makeshift, temporal, or non-static built environments ? from interiors of exhibitions, installations, or performances that respond to emergent needs of social expression, to interiors of necessity that alter and adapt domestic spaces as people migrate, customs change, and families grow. In the face of housing crises and indefinite temporary accommodation, how does the unplanned occupancy of shared houses, shelters, and crisis accommodation speak to the new moral geographies of our times? With rising climate and political uncertainty, what is the significance of agility, temporality, or openness to change needed for new approaches to interior planning?
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) ? DUE 14 March 2025
Authors are invited to register their interest with an EOI submitted via the Idea Journal submission portal by 14 March 2025.
