| Culture has increasingly become defined through immaterial sources. Over the past fifteen years, electronic and digital technologies have delivered an ever-expanding immaterial culture to define western society. Digitized information, real-time communications and wireless technologies have all contributed to redefine the condition and status of physical space and materiality at the entry into the twenty-first century.;Advancing immaterial culture is not merely a condition of disappearance. And further, suggests to be a far more complex phenomena. William J. Mitchell, former Dean of the School of Architecture and current Academic Head of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts Institute Technology [MIT] observes, "the interesting challenge is not just to replace atoms with bits, or presence with telepresence, but to learn...critically and thoughtfully to work out the subtle, complicated, problematic relationships of the material and the virtual" (1998, p. 214). The inquiry aims to develop a deeper understanding of this relationship, of the physical (material) space to that of virtual or digital (immaterial) space, as presented in the digital era. Through critical analysis, I consider the contentious underpinnings and suggested implications of this relationship upon the design of the interior environment.;My study attempts to inform current and future interior design practice, process and education. Grounding the inquiry in theory, the approach strives for expanding the analysis towards the future implications of immaterial culture on design and architecture. The inquiry aims to review the dominant traits, conditions, challenges and opportunities presented by immaterial phenomena on interior design. |
