Filed under: cinema, space and everyday life | Tags: ikea, great exhibition, daily mail ideal homes, smithsons
I decided I wasn’t happy with the original version of this post, so I’m changing it into a picture post. I’m trying to formulate an essay around representations of domestic space through mock-up rooms displayed at exhibitions. Below are images representing what seem to me to be four predominant epistemes in terms of exhibited, constructed rooms.
I want to be thinking about these mock-ups in terms of hegemonic, prescriptive models for living, and the disjuncture between public and private space in which these constructions necessarily exist. I should also point out that I’m not so much concerned with an art/architectural history approach, analysing instead what experiential/phenomenological effects these exhibitions strive towards and/or produce.
The Heroic Period of the Publicised Domestic Interior: The Great Exhibition of 1851
Bringing It All Back Home: Britain Can Make It (1946) and the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibitions (1908 onwards) 
An Anxious Modernism: The ‘House of the Future’ and ‘This is Tomorrow’ Exhibitions (both 1956)
Richard Hamilton - Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?
Alison and Peter Smithson - Patio and Pavilion
The Spectacle of Domesticity: The Ikea Aesthetic/Ikea Modernism
I’d be interested to hear whether anyone has any suggestions for other outstanding methods of exhibiting domestic spaces that may fit into this genealogy, or anything to say on this issue more generally.
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hey sam,
i have a few suggestions: jung von matt, one of germany’s biggest advertising agencies, has built up contemporary model living rooms for the countries germany, austria and switzerland - these can be found on: http://www.jvm.de/wozikonfi/htm_de/index.htm
unfortunately, everything is in german again - if you think you can use it in your post, i could translate for you.
another idea i had is a book i have at home in germany. it is called “plattenbau privat” and exhibits 60 different living rooms, all photographed from the exact same two angles and all of them architecturally have the same cut - as they are “plattenbau”. here’s a link - also in german, but you can click on a few images to get a first glimpse: http://www.amazon.de/Plattenbau-privat-Interieurs-Susanne-Hopf/dp/3894791306
i can get it for you when flying home to germany tomorrow.
anne
Comment by meandomedar March 5, 2008 @ 10:07 amhey anne, thanks a lot, both of those suggestions are exactly the sort of thing i’m looking for. the top one is particularly useful.
on a more historical tip, i also need to know more about le corbusier, especially his Pavilion de l’Espirit Nouveau:
Comment by sam March 5, 2008 @ 1:48 pmhttp://www.retropolis.net/exposition/corbusier3.jpg
aahh…le corbusier. wonderful.
there is a whole area in stuttgart were, among others, le corbusier built a model house. i don’t know if you can go inside (when we visited a few years ago, it wasn’t possible) but there’s a museum and, of course, a website
http://www.weissenhof.ckom.de/01_allgemein/index.php?thema=1&kategorie=0&lang=en
anne
Comment by DANTE March 6, 2008 @ 11:09 am…just checked out the website myself - most of it seems to be in german, again.
so if you need translation, let me know.
this link might be especially interesting:
http://www.weissenhof.ckom.de/04_rundgang/index1.php?thema=4&flash=5
click on no. 5 on the lefthand side map and you can see the interior of le corbusier’s house.
wohnzimmer = living room
treppenhaus = hallway
dachterrase = roof garden
there are also a couple of other houses that you can have a look at there such as one of schneck, mies van der rohe or scharoun.
by the way, the whole of the area is called “Weißenhofsiedlung”
Comment by DANTE March 6, 2008 @ 11:15 am…interesting….there are the historical fabrications of rooms at places like the v&a and the Geoffrey museum in london. plus i guess the spaces of catalogues such as habitat, argos etc. personally i am a big fan of
Comment by charles holland March 6, 2008 @ 5:29 pmthe conran interior design handbooks over the years as a a kind of record of how domestic space and taste have changed. also you could see the argos catalogue as a sort of folk/commercial record of these changes.