Revealing Emotional Space Using Representational Techniques of Installation Artists in Architectural Design Education

Architects and Interior Designers have an insurmountable problem within the process of design. Our language consists of two-dimensional explanations about three-dimensional events. Drawings, consisting mostly of plans, elevations and perspectives make up the majority of these archaic methods. In addition, our ability to educate is handicapped by the dynamic difference in scale that exists between these tools and the environments they represent. We often explore designs at 1/50th to 1/100th their actual size. Our ideas are about being inside looking out, but our representation and education techniques are always placing us outside looking in. This paper will examine alternative methods of spatial representation that address scale, dimension and more importantly the perceptual and emotional components of our designed environments. The resulting projects utilized representational methods often attributed to Installation Artists. These interior spaces designed for gallery settings presented an architectural dialog while existing within the framework of installation art, revealing an emotional component often attributed to art, but usually hidden in our understanding of architectural space and the interior environments we inhabit everyday