Anyone fitting out a new home has likely considered whether it’s better to hire a professional to design the interiors of their new space or to take that task on themselves. Hiring an interior designer brings unquestionable value to making a home uniquely functional and comfortable, but it does bring into question if it’s worth the cost. Luckily, the burgeoning world of online freelancing platforms offers a new method for homeowners to engage with freelance interior designers that makes even a modest investment worth the expense.
What Can an Interior Designer Do?
In general, an interior designer’s role in a home design project is to conceive of one or more possibilities for the layout, look, and feel of an interior space, then communicate their ideas with images such as 3D renderings, technical drawings, or material lists. Most importantly, they design spaces to satisfy both the functional requirements and aesthetic tastes of their clients. If done well, their experience and training leads to a more detailed, refined, and well-implemented design than a homeowner taking a do-it-yourself approach.
Responsibility-wise, interior designers are often tasked with both selecting products and devising layouts for surface finish materials, lighting fixtures, furniture, cabinetry, and other furnishings. They can also oversee a contractor who’s building their designs, or advise a homeowner that’s installing them on their own. Their exact responsibilities vary by the needs of a project, but they can grow or be limited to include any aspect of how the interior of a home, or even just a single room, is designed.
Hiring an interior designer brings many practical benefits to a home design project. Their expertise allows them to spot problematic decisions before they’re implemented, saving time and money on mistakes. They’re also likely able to use their professional connections to get the best price on any fixtures, furniture, or furnishings needed for the project. Most importantly, their services free up a homeowner from taking the time to come up with a design, determine if it will actually work, and fret over numerous minor details in the process.
Why Hire a Freelance Interior Designer?
Many great, small-scale interior design firms and solo practitioners can provide services within many homeowner’s budgets. However, the best value is found by hiring a freelance interior designer through an online platform, such as Fiverr. The development of online freelancing platforms in recent years has allowed freelance interior designers to operate virtually while offering their services in discrete, pre-packaged bundles. This allows them to perform their services at much lower rates than conventional professional arrangements due to lower overhead costs and the elimination of a great deal of up-front negotiation.
Anyone pursuing this approach to home design would definitely benefit from considering what deliverables they expect from a freelance interior designer before reaching out to one. An interior designer’s work products are often produced cumulatively as a project progresses, and what’s needed depends on the scope of the project and a homeowner’s budget. A typical workflow could incorporate any combination of items including an introductory consultation or conceptual direction-setter, such as a mood board, before moving on to detailed floor plans, elevations, or renderings.
If a homeowner is hiring a contractor to build their new space, they should ensure any plans an interior designer creates are detailed enough for their contractor to build from. In this case, it may be best to arrange a meeting between the designer and the contractor, or even a series of check-ins throughout the project’s construction. Many freelance interior designers offer this service virtually, although for relatively simple projects it may not be necessary, so it’s best to verify in advance what each party feels they need from the other to best complete their portion of the work.
How to Hire a Freelance Interior Designer
The easiest way to hire a freelance interior designer is through an online platform. With a dedicated Architecture & Interior Design store, Fiverr leads the way in this approach. A homeowner searching for an interior designer can filter their search on Fiverr by the type of deliverable, set of services, budget range, or seller characteristics they’re looking for, leading to a match far quicker than relying on recommendations from friends, family, or local industry groups.
Most talents on Fiverr break their work packages into three graduated levels of service, with price and other items like turnaround time, number of revisions, and final deliverables clearly identified. Specific details are agreed upon through direct communication before an assignment begins, and many freelance interior designers are open to discussing custom combinations of services, or even more complex work beyond their boilerplate packages.
Ready to find the perfect interior designer for your project? Head over to Fiverr’s Architecture & Interior Design store and check out the vast range of budget-friendly professional interior design services at your disposal.
A gender-inclusive hair salon and a cafe that aims to help break down mental health barriers are included in Dezeen’s latest school show from students at the University of Huddersfield.
Also included is a project that aims to revolutionise up-cycling in the retail industry and an adventure and learning centre designed for the elderly.
“We are proud to present a selection of ten pieces of award-winning work that aim to demonstrate the range and scope of projects students undertake in their final year of study. Throughout each project, they selected a site and developed their project brief. Through in-depth research and explorative processes, projects are designed and developed, becoming realised through technical and visual communication.
“Here at Huddersfield, we think that interior design transforms ideas into experiences. We allow students to create entirely new experiences and relationships between people and the places they spend time in. The emphasis is on creativity as we explore and extend current design thinking, pushing boundaries to innovate, providing new ways of looking at human and spatial interactions in response to our changing world.
“This group of students has had to cope with unprecedented circumstances during the Covid-19 outbreak and are a credit to themselves and the course in producing exciting projects that help us to glimpse the future. They are on the cusp of new approaches and changing parameters in design, able to adapt and offer reflexive approaches to future projects. To view the university’s virtual showcase click here and to view its Instagram, visit its profile.”
22 Degrees by Paccelli Sowerby
“This project aims to democratise wine tasting for the younger consumer. It seeks to mix up the traditional wine bar, reintroducing wine to the younger consumer in a fun, informal environment that focuses on learning through experience.
“The project intends to create a reactive space with a hands-on approach to wine tasting, bringing people closer to natural wine by echoing the hand-crafted winemaking process through design elements.
“The space gives people the tools and info to embark on their own journey of wine discovery whilst learning about the making process and being inspired by the urban vineyard environment.
“22 Degrees offers more than just a huge variety of natural wines – it also hosts a selfie label-booth, interactive wine quiz, contact-free bottle shop, self serve wine bar, sensory wine experience and roof terrace with sensory grape pods. This project has a full technical pack and feasibility study, both of which are available for download on my website.”
Student: Paccelli Sowerby Award: Best Visual Communication Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Millennium by Adam Kendall
“Today, millennials represent about 32 per cent of the luxury market but will grow to command 50 per cent of the market by 2025. It is clear that technology is advancing and is a significant part of younger generations lives. Through primary research, 48 per cent of millennials spend more than five hours a day looking at a digital screen, and 35 per cent spend between 75 -120 minutes on social media.
“Millennium is a space influenced by social media, and tech aims to create a unique but relatable experience for younger people, making them feel more involved and connected. The issue discovered through the project research is that there is a growing millennial customer base in the luxury industry.
“However, a change or development has not been seen to suit this audience in the commercial sector. In fact, luxury bars and restaurants are more suitable for the older generations. This leads to the isolation of their younger audience, who are digitally savvy and constantly connected. I propose a solution – to create a space that relates to younger generations. A space that is familiar, comfortable and digitally enhanced.”
Student: Adam Kendall Award: Best Technical Detailing Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen leach and Natasha Crowe
Re-Fashioned by Heather Martin
“This is a project that aims to revolutionise up-cycling in the retail industry through the manipulation of contemporary retail and technology. Often the clothing industry does not recycle materials it cannot sell.
“This means an increasing amount of materials are being thrown away instead of being recycled and reused which, further contributes to the global environmental crisis.
“The solution seems obvious: employ artists who love up-cycling and using material which usually gets discarded to craft new items people will love to wear! Research showed that many people feel pessimistic about purchasing pre-owned items. Re-Fashioned places a luxurious twist on up-cycled clothing to encourage more people to do more to save the environment and to look good doing it!
“The concept was developed by the silhouettes and shapes inspired by the human body – seen in the lighting features. Materials within the space were also essential to consider as it needed to be luxury as well as sustainable and natural.”
Student: Heather Martin Award: Best Creative Process Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Sip + Sculpt by Alyssia Hanson
“Sip + Sculpt is designed to allow its customers to unwind in a space where they can work through their stress and break down barriers around mental health. It aims to facilitate connection, inspire imagination and create an oasis of positivity and comfort.
“The project’s concept was influenced by the ‘slow living movement’ alongside the keywords, balance’ and ‘floating’. Customers are encouraged to lock away their devices, distancing themselves from the use of social media, allowing themselves to embrace their creativity and get messy with clay.”
Student: Alyssia Hanson Award: Best Conceptual Approach Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
New Horizons Cub House by Amy Rigby
“New Horizons is an experiential adventure and event planning space including digital booking hubs and learning zones. It has been created for the retired generation to create a place to counteract any regrets they have through life.
“Through research, I found that retired people have many regrets about things they have missed out on during their working lives but don’t have anywhere to explore and resolve them.
“The space has been created to encourage and support a second life with access to fun and exciting activities. Activities include participating in new experiences by trying them out in the VR zone, booking experiences, learning about the digital world and improving skills, or just socialising and meeting new people of similar ages and interests.
“The concept is based around ‘a walk in the park’ which makes entering the clubhouse an experience in itself, as the concept can be seen in the layout and other features.”
Student: Amy Rigby Award: Best Use of Materiality Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Parmilla by Luke Pierce
“Parmilla is dedicated to the people of Huddersfield and is a creative community workplace and social hub, driven by the concept of perspective. The centre celebrates the creative culture the town has to offer and provide co-working spaces and meeting hubs for hire.
“With the ground floor open to the public, it offers the opportunity for exhibitions and offers space for creative events and performances, to provide new experiences and introduce people to new cultural arts.
“It also has a kitchen space located on the ground floor that features a local guest chef every Friday to offer new food experiences to its guests and give the restaurants the chefs are representing more exposure.
“Parmilia will also send out lengths of fabric to local schools, care homes and stands in the streets of Huddersfield to have people tie knots in the fabric. This fabric will then be exhibited from the ceilings throughout the space. Serving mainly as wayfinding, it also highlights essential areas in Parmilla and represents the people of Huddersfield and celebrates individuality.”
Student: Luke Pierce Award: Best Spatial Exploration Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Derma-Tech by Rhiana-Dean Robinson-Hine
“Derma-Tech is a multi-functional, fully immersive retail experience that provides information on skincare knowledge. Consumers are given access to current dermatology technology and DNA driven retailing.
“Developing a forward-thinking ‘go-to’ space for all things skincare by providing numerous experiences for consumers. With technology at the forefront of the design, it harnesses artificial intelligence teledermatology and implements smart technologies throughout each step of the customer journey.”
Student: Rhiana-Dean Robinson-Hine Award: Best Future Focussed Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Unite Wellness by Jordan Marzetti
“The Wellness and Respite Centre focuses on delivering a new experience to both dependants and carers. It is a new brand that combines leisure with respite, tackling the disadvantages adults with learning disabilities face and addressing the mental and physical wellbeing of both the dependant and carer.
“It is a purpose-built space located within a residential area, but placed conveniently with other complimenting businesses, providing on-site support through counselling and information. Design is purposely minimal to aid adults with learning disabilities, corridors are direct in layout, and all essential rooms can be found on main corridors.
“There are no curves, or complicated shapes, no distracting patterns, or textures and information points on each main corridor aid navigation acting as way-finding. It includes a new staircase with handrails spaced to be held on either side, including an emergency evacuation slide. Automatic doors into all changing and restroom entrances and two new extra-large lifts have been added to the site.”
Student: Jordan Marzetti Award: Best Socially Focused Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Undefeated by Sarah Parkes
“Research has shown that an overwhelming number of females are faced with physical, mental and social barriers when participating in physical activities. Therefore, a key objective of the design proposal was to challenge and support the journeys women face by offering a personalised and unique fitting service within a female-only sportswear store.
“The building is split into three key areas: physical, mental and social. Physical is on the ground floor and is focused on enhancing the body through high-performance sportswear. This zone also includes RFID technology self-checkout, collection points, beacon technology touchscreens and AR smart mirrors.
“The mental section is on the basement floor and is concentrated on re-energising the customer’s mind and body by creating a multi-sensory experience. This includes a relaxation massage pod that indulges all the customer senses and helps them to escape from the busy retail stores on Oxford Street.
“Social is on the first floor and is focused on maintaining customer’s wellbeing by encouraging social interaction within the environment of a nutrition cafe. The material palette includes fresh and light materials that correspond with nutrition and healthy eating.”
Student: Sarah Parkes Award: Best Commercially Focussed Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Dare Hair by Jasmin Hardy
“Dare is a non-binary, gender-inclusive hair salon that looks towards the new generation of gender-inclusive hairstyling salons. After researching the importance of hair in gender/self-identity it became apparent that the hair industry needed a new approach to its mainly binary format.
“Using the concept of fluidity, which was also inspired by the limitless creativity of the metaverse, Dare Hair aims to create a gender-inclusive environment for people to experiment with their appearance aided by the integration of smart technology.
“Whether it be someone wanting to experiment with a bold alternative hairstyle or someone exploring their gender expression, everyone is welcome and encouraged at Dare Hair.
“Throughout my time at university, my projects have been driven with the edges of society in mind, so being able to create Dare Hair with the concentration being on the LGBTQ+ community has pushed me to create a thorough, well researched final design. I am thankful to those who are part of the community who were willing to share their experiences with me and I dedicate this project to them.”
Student: Jasmin Hardy Award: Best Overall Project Tutors: Penny Sykes, Jen Leach and Natasha Crowe
Partnership content
This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and the University of Huddersfield. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
REDO Architects had stage sets in mind when redesigning the interiors for a pair of houses in the former Puppeteers’ Quarter in Sintra, Portugal.
The two homes, now known as Puppeteers House, are part of a series of buildings that were originally built for a local puppeteer’s family, but had more recently been used as storage for farming tools.
A curved wooden bench creates a window seat on the first-floor landing
With its renovation, Lisbon-based REDO Architects has brought the buildings back into residential use as homes for two of the puppeteer’s great grandchildren.
The revamped buildings are designed to capture the spirit of their heritage, with lightweight wooden joinery constructions that evoke theatrical scenography and circular details that suggest a playful character.
Bathrooms are concealed within the wooden joinery
An all-new interior layout was needed, so this was designed to reinforce the theatrical feel.
Elements like the staircase and first-floor window seat have a stage-like quality, while secondary spaces like bathrooms are concealed within the walls.
The larger house contains a dedicated kitchen and dining space
“The relation between the existing external walls and the new interior walls – two different skins – was explored and dramatised throughout the project on different scales,” explained studio founder Diogo Figueiredo.
“This friction generated misalignments, which are expressed in the windows as opaque panels,” he told Dezeen, “and it also created in-between spaces for built-in furniture and bathrooms, like a back-of-stage area.”
The homes sit on opposite sides of a garden courtyard
One of the houses is single-storey, the other is double-storey, and they are located either side of a private courtyard.
The buildings are designed to function as self-contained properties, but they are also very open to one another, with large windows fronting the shared courtyard garden.
The smaller property contains one bedroom on the ground floor
The smaller of the two homes contains a living space with a kitchenette, a separate bedroom and a bathroom.
The other home has a similar layout, with a living room and a separate kitchen and dining space on the ground floor, and two en-suite bedrooms upstairs.
Living spaces feature lioz stone flooring
A consistent materials palette features throughout. An ivory-toned regional stone known as lioz was used flooring in the main living spaces and surfaces for the kitchen and bathrooms.
Flooring in the bedrooms is wood, matching the doors, furniture and shelving that feature throughout the two homes.
Circular details feature throughout the interiors, at a range of scales. Some are full circles, like the porthole window and cabinet handles, while others are large curves, like the window seat or the rounded wall partitions.
“We used a precise quarter of a circle as a tool – like a compass – in different radii, orientations, combinations and materialities,” explained Figueiredo.
The main first-floor bedroom features a corner window
“It was explored in different moments of the project: to differentiate and disconnect the new internal layer from the existing walls, to connect different rooms, and to create smooth circulation routes,” he said.
Many of these curves are mirrored in ceiling details directly overhead, which contrast with the linearity of the exposed roof beams.
The second first-floor bedroom features a porthole window
Other recent examples of house renovations in Portugal include House in Fontaínhas, a home with candy-coloured details, and Rural House in Portugal, a house created in an old granite community oven.
Textured surfaces and sinuous forms populate this outpost of vegan restaurant chain Sequel in Mumbai, which was designed by local architect Ashiesh Shah.
Located in an office development in the city’s Bandra Kurla Complex, the interior was conceived as a calming antidote to the busy business district beyond.
“The restaurant alludes to a timeless charm, celebrating the ethos of subtle luxury, slow living and refined lifestyles,” Shah explained.
The dining area of Sequel’s Mumbai outpost features counter seating (above) as well as a number of standalone tables (top image)
Divided into two zones, Sequel features a grab-and-go counter on one side and a cafe on the other, which serves as a formal dining area for customers looking for a break from work.
The two areas are divided by a central partition with a doorway on either side for easy circulation.
Sheer curtains cover the restaurant’s wrap-around window
Shah designed the restaurant as a reflection of Sequel’s philosophy, which it described as “futuristic in form and earthy at its core”.
Textured materials are paired with neutral colours and soft edges to create a “visually soft interior”.
Shah had a number of furniture items, such as these stools, custom-made for the project
“The material choices for the space pay homage to Indian craftsmanship and handmade processes,” Shah explained.
A sculptural lighting fixture, handmade using lacquered channapatna beads from the Indian state of Karnataka, hangs in the centre of the seating area.
A chandelier made from lacquered wooden beads hangs above the dining area
Here, walls are lined with oak wood veneer that runs from the ground onto the walls and along the gridded facade, while a sheer curtain covers the wrap-around window. A matching console unit is finished in the same oak wood veneer.
The grab-and-go section of the restaurant is enveloped by curved walls clad in louvred wooden panelling that was handmade on site, before being finished in an open-grained veneer with grey lacquer.
A monolithic serving counter enveloped in moulded off-white Corian resin emerges from the wall and snakes out into the dining area.
Its curved lines are echoed in the false ceiling overhead, where globe-shaped lights are positioned like pearls within oyster-shaped reliefs made from textured lime plaster.
The same bumpy plaster was applied to parts of the walls and a series of oyster-shaped shelves that appear to grow out of the wall, while patterned terracotta bricks line the floor.
The ceiling is decorated with oyster-shaped reliefs
Many of the furniture pieces, including the rounded chairs and sofas in the formal dining area as well as the consoles, bar units, coffee counters, communal tables, shelving and storage cabinets, were custom-made for the project.
“The lighting, materiality and form together celebrate a narrative of perfect imperfection,” Shah explained.
An integrated shelving system seems to grow from the walls
In his work, the architect says he practices the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in imperfections.
Other restaurants with textured surfaces include a Kyiv eatery by Yakusha Design with rough concrete walls and this fine-dining restaurant where Valencia studio Masquespacio employed uneven surface finishes such as rough stucco, ceramic and terracotta tiles.
Dezeen has launched Dezeen Lookbooks, a new section featuring roundups of home interiors and decor trends to help designers and design lovers plan their projects.
Published each Saturday, the visually driven Dezeen Lookbooks present roundups of images of contemporary interiors selected from our vast archive of over 750,000 images.
Each roundup is curated by the Dezeen editorial team and addresses a different room and theme.
Top: an image from our cosy living rooms lookbook. Above: a project from the peaceful bedrooms lookbook
Lookbooks published so far feature living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms.
Dezeen Lookbooks is a response to the surge of interest in home design since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen people spending much more time at home.
As a result, web traffic to Dezeen posts about home interiors has soared.
This Barcelona apartment features in our colourful kitchens lookbook
Popular Lookbook stories we’ve published over the last few months include our showcases of living rooms with calm interiors, bold bathroom designs and thirty kitchens designed by architects.
We’ll be adding more image-led roundups over the coming weeks and plan to expand the section to include other types of interiors plus trend reports in future.
Interior design fans can also check out our sections on residential interiors, apartments and houses.
Twenty interior design students at New York City’s Pratt Institute present their final projects in Dezeen’s latest school show.
From a building that could purify contaminated floodwater to analysing how to improve user’s airport experiences, these projects by undergraduate and postgraduate interior design students at Pratt Institute explore how interiors affect our environment and behaviour.
“The Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design at Pratt Institute has consistently ranked as the top interior design programmes in the United States and are considered to be some of the most prominent and influential. The courses prepare students to engage in critical inquiry and exploration – skills that establish them as innovators having an impact on the profession, the discipline and research on the interior environment.
“The programmes are architecturally oriented with emphasis on spatial articulation. They are designed to guide students in generating creative solutions by understanding craft, light, colour, and material research. Through theoretical and applied research, the curriculum addresses emerging and innovative technologies, interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainable practices. Both degrees focus on larger issues of ethical and social responsibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion through an understanding of global cultural history and its context.”
Solitary Living and Social Interactions in Urban Community by Bingyu Hu
“With different scales, functions and degrees of transparency, interior spaces serve as containers to protect privacy, stimulating communication and participation. As a result, they respond to individual’s lives while fostering community interaction.”
“Activating Boundaries addresses the way generic airport experiences have become passive due to the overwhelming amount of stress placed on users throughout their journey. The effects of these emotions leave the user searching for entertainment from the consumerism offered post-security check.
“Based on research, the stress users undergo are elevated in periods of waiting and delays when the presence of large lines appear. Is there an opportunity to repurpose these boundaries? Can stressors be transformed into a sensory experience? How can we transition from the independent isolation of travelling to experience the journey of travelling together?
“This thesis allowed me to investigate the future of design amidst a global pandemic that has altered the way we perceive space and people. It investigates reconnecting people with each other.”
Harvesting Water: Reimagining Environmental Waters as Constructive Materials in the Resilient Coastal Interior by Kats Tamanaha
“By 2060, an estimated 13 million Americans will be displaced due to rising sea levels and coastal flooding. This thesis explores the possibilities of tidal, flood and stormwater as ‘materials’ in our built environment. Here their potential is shifted, from substances that destroy to resilient tools used to manage flooding.
“Water within the built environment is hidden, hyper-controlled through intricate plumbing systems and filtered for use. Water within the exterior is uncontrolled and often feared. Floodwater is contaminated, picking up traces of where it has been and what it has touched. As sea levels rise, areas formerly at risk for 100-year floods will soon be submerged at high tide. How can the interior adapt to embrace the new reality of water rather than avoid it?
“My project embraces the future of permanent tidal flooding. The building passively phytoremediates toxic water while creating an adaptive form of the interior. It explores possibilities of tidal, flood, and stormwater as tools for long-term, in-place resiliency in coastal communities facing an increasing risk of flooding.”
“Fragment / Reconcile addresses the complexity of living in a post-conflict, economically deprived community that struggles under the burden of the past. Following the events of the troubles and the death of a dominant industry, an entire generation is coming of age in Derry who have to navigate insurmountable unemployment rates and forge a path to peace with little to no outside support.
“To help mitigate the most pressing issue for youth in Derry, I proposed an incubator and teaching facility to build community resilience through a network of small businesses. The centre would provide the resources currently lacking to retain their workforce and make upward mobility possible within the city.
“Growth is made possible by the incubator’s interactive and reflective practices. It engages with the community on a macro scale while also encouraging individual healing on a micro scale. As the user moves through space, it transitions from a collaborative environment to a self-reflective one. An archive becomes the basis upon which to preserve and reflect the collective memory of the people it serves. By being informed by the past, they can move towards the best version of their future.”
“This project puts forward new ways to inhabit in-between space. By breaking down interior elements one by one, a layering of interior and exterior space emerges and reinvents traditional spatial constructs.”
“This thesis focuses on the home as a ‘central agent of change’ in response to the remittance between the Salvadoran-American transnational identity. Here, remittance signifies the value of a cultural currency by forming a multi-generational landscape of retraced rituals and reassembled emblems.
“At the beginnings of a discourse, there is an agency in how the home responds to generational, cultural, psychological and environmental issues to constantly shape, design and re-examine contemporary living.”
“The Nest is a didactic and prototypical full-time detention centre designed for male adolescents who have committed minor crimes. It is a critique of the current antiquated prison form in New York City. It explores educational, healing, and therapeutic spatial relationships and rethinks surveillance in order to reform negative behaviours and support mental health issues.”
“Moments of Movement investigates how interior space can directly affect one’s bodily awareness and interactions with the environment. Rather than habitually moving through space, space can be designed to heighten our awareness of our body and its relationship with the material world.
“The intention is to bring more awareness and appreciation to those small, everyday events that we often perform on auto-pilot. Although we tend to seek out spectacular events, life often happens in those everyday moments in-between. Rather than rushing past them, the users are prompted to slow down and experience those moments.
“The thesis proposes that the body will be part of a network where interactions and movements through thresholds directly affect the environment. By augmenting thresholds within a parking garage and adding screens, mirrors, enhanced lighting, walls and monitors, body movements will be figured as the form-making material of the project. As the body moves within and between various garage zones, it becomes part of a network and explores the relationship between the environment and agency.”
Building Within Memory: Strengthening Place Identity in Deteriorating Environments by Claire Riordan
“Place-identity is defined by a person’s cognitions about the physical world around them. At their core are a person’s environmental past, made up of places, spaces and characteristics that have shaped their biological, psychological, social, and cultural needs.
“This thesis analyzes how the changing built environment can be used as a tool to reveal layers of place-identity. The mutual experience of change over time will inform the connection between the physical body and the spatial body, resulting in a stronger sense of self-identity.”
“Through the theory that performance exists every day, stage fright occurs in domestic, banal settings. In this project, customers in a retail furniture store become performers during their perusal of the staged vignettes by subverting social thresholds and design standards, new social and physical relationships form, alleviating the stigma of stage fright.
“Set in the theatrical and historical furniture showroom – ABC Carpet and Home – the staged sets which aim to present a home setting are critiqued as performative. Hired performers act out different domestic activities and shoppers find themselves crossing the threshold from audience to performer. In their attempt to look at the furniture, test it and imagine it in their own homes, they become part of the performance.
“An open floor plan allows for programmes to cross over, as a bed becomes a seat in a dining setting. Some toilets are for show, while others have working plumbing. The sets have spotlights, curtains and a fly system that allows for changing scenes, as furniture flies overhead, adding a theatrical quality to the performance.”
“This thesis explores a shared harmonic environment for residents and tourists. It uses performance rituals to create a prototypical system for cultural interaction and social harmony in creative cities of music evaluated by UNESCO.
“Spatial devices create new relationships between tourists and residents, combining with daily events such as dining or lounging, and cultivating cross-cultural understanding through the universal language of music and integrating it into the celebration of rituals such as holidays and food.
“The rituals will create a specific spatial quality by increasing culture experiences by controlling the sound transparency and visualizing the vibration of sound.”
“Curating Urban Wormholes explores the city through a new lens: by inserting cinematic experiences in sidewalk freight elevators that connect invisible, disparate moments in the cityscape. The elevators function as portals to parallel universes providing a social and cultural exchange between program and user.
“The project was inspired by the loss of authentic cinematic experiences due to the pandemic and the heterotopic quality of underutilized niches in the city.
“The network of temporary cinematic installations in sidewalk freight elevators reengages the city by activating unused, ‘other’ spaces, unlocking the city’s true potential. The curated serendipity of the wormholes invites the rediscovery of the urban landscape.
“These wormholes have a nodular quality that gives them an existence of their past the time of their installation, allowing them to leave behind traces in the urban fabric that add to the layered experience of the city.”
Beneath the Surface: An Inquiry into Boundary as a Didactic Threshold to Promote Awareness by Nella Gray
“Beneath the Surface explores ways to create tension within layers of interior design to provoke awareness and empathy for evasive issues.
“This project questions the separation of people from systems of production and waste as it enables apathy towards the concealed relationship of consumption and environmental degradation.”
“Borrowing existing materials inherent to the New York City subway station, such as the 3×6 tiles, the project will manipulate the surfaces of the City Hall Station to become an interactive, acoustical field of sonic densities. This experiential-interactive installation intends to address the notion of speed by making the acoustic field and the different paces of the city visual. In other words, rendering auditory data points visible to understand the functioning of NYC.
“The exploration is towards creating an interactive instrument activated through the movement of the users and the train in relation to the parallax effect.
“City Hall Station is underneath the City Hall Park, and the entrance is through the park. It is a loop station for Train Six: The station has existing skylights to the park’s surface.
“The project will be taking a material inherent to the subway station and recreate exposed surfaces in a different function, colour, and densities of tiles to highlight the notion of speed which could be experienced visually and acoustically.”
Pools Under Pavement by Michael Antonio Warren (MFA Interior Design) A Void: Rising Sea Level by Seung Heon Lee (BFA Interior Design) Implicit Bias by Xinxiao Hui (BFA Interior Design) Weaving Connectivity by Xiaoke Li (MFA Interior Design) Breathing Rules by Yang Pei (MFA Interior Design) Haptic Therapy Centre by Honghao Chen (BFA Interior Design)
The portfolio and thesis presentations of the Pratt School of Design MFA and BFA Interior Design Class of 2021 can be found on Pratt Institute’s website.
Partnership content
This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and The Pratt Institute. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
The mid-century architecture and roadside diners of the American west informed the interior of this nostalgic hamburger restaurant in Paris designed by CUT Architectures.
Located in Paris’s Citadium – a multi-brand department store on Boulevard Hausmann that is focused on lifestyle, streetwear, and sneaker culture – PNY Citadium is the hamburger chain’s seventh opening in the city.
Top image: yellow booth seating has a mid-century look. Above: marquee lettering announces the menu
Paris studio CUT Architectures – which previously designed PNY’s first, second, third and fourth outposts – was invited back to create this location around the theme “electric tropical diner”.
The interior, which features neon tube lighting, aluminium walls and embossed stainless steel, seeks to capture the “vivid and unique” energy of America’s West Coast.
Bar stools are paired with circular tables
In particular, the architects looked to the mid-century architecture of Venice Beach in Los Angeles, the Palm Springs’ houses of Albert Frey, and Palm Desert sunsets.
Set out over 75 square metres, the 51-seat restaurant is headed up by a curved crenellated aluminium bar that lines the back wall.
The back of the bar is clad in aluminium while overhead a retro lightbox sign that displays the menu wraps around the top.
The crenellated aluminium bar reflects light across the restaurant
“The place is conceived as an architectural parenthesis set in the Citadium; a roadside diner whose bar is clad in crenellated aluminium like a longhaul truck crossing the United States,” said CUT Architectures.
“The back bar is dressed in embossed stainless steel with a radiant pattern that increases the reflections.”
Seating is laid out over a series of classic diner booths with banquette seating, as well as a series of tall bar tables and stools.
The booths are positioned along the entrance to the department store and lined with large circular glass panels, lit by rows of warm neon tubes that fade from yellow to orange and pink.
Sun-like panels were placed at the ends of tables for privacy
Designed to recall the setting sun on the Pacific Ocean, the panels provide privacy for diners and create a visual boundary between the restaurant and the rest of the department store.
“To achieve the specific hues and quality of light we wanted we used old school signage neon tubes instead of LED lights,” the studio told Dezeen.
Sunset hues reflect off the surfaces
The bases of the taller tables are made from large steel cylinders lacquered in a faded yellow hue.
The cylinders pierce through glossy white circular tabletops to create planter centrepieces that are filled with arid vegetation native to the Californian desert.
Other sunset-informed eatery designs include designer Yota Kakuda’s sunset-hued counter installed within a Tokyo cheese tart shop.
While in a Hong Kong cafe, architecture firms Studio Etain Ho and Absence from Island pay homage to Australia’s spectacular sunsets with a terracotta colour scheme and semi-circular forms.
London firm dMFK Architects has transformed a mid-century medical laboratory into a flexible office space with smoked oak joinery and a restored concrete staircase.
The office is spread over 550 square metres and located on the first floor of a fully-glazed 1960s building in the city’s Fitzrovia neighbourhood.
Meeting rooms are separated from the main space using smoked oak joinery
dMFK Architects was commissioned by property developers Derwent London to create an interior that was in keeping with the building’s heritage while incorporating the essential features of a modern co-working space.
Accessed from the ground floor lobby via the building’s original restored concrete staircase, the office features smoked oak joinery and bespoke family-style tables by British furniture brand Benchmark.
Spherical pendant lights hang in the main open-plan office area
Paired with vintage lights and pieces of Swiss and Danish furniture, the overall scheme creates a homely environment that is reminiscent of the mid-century era.
The studio incorporated a wide range of spaces for different types of work including phone booths, focus booths, a choice of meeting spaces, shared flexible workbenches, a breakout area, dining spaces, showers and changing facilities.
“We aimed to design as many different workplace opportunities within one space as we could, to offer a potential tenant light and shade and a range of options,” said dMFK Architects.
“Materials were kept soft and neutral to appeal to as wide a range of tenants as we could.”
Open shelving helps to divide up the space
The architects also stressed the importance of offering different types of lighting to foster productivity.
“We wanted contrast, areas of light and shade, strong task lighting on the tables but dimmer lighting in other areas,” they explained.
“We also chose not to use linear strip lighting to create a less even quality of light, which we believe is less tiring and more interesting.”
dMFK Architects restored the building’s original concrete staircase
According to dMFK Architects, the project is representative of a growing trend for developers to create finished interiors within office spaces, rather than renting out empty shells.
The studio has previously designed 11 buildings for The Office Group and was responsible for renovating The Gaslight, a mixed-use development set within an art deco building in central London.
