ISC Design

INTRODUCTION

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Docomomo International performs a very important task of research and diffusion of knowledge related to the conservation and reuse of Modern Movement cultural heritage. Within the scope of Docomomo International activities, International Specialist Committees (ISC) focus on specific issues, such as: ISC/Registers, ISC/Technology, ISC/Urbanism+Landscape and ISC/Education+Theory.

We would like to announce that the establishment of a Docomomo International Scientific Committee on Interior Design has been approved at the 14^th Docomomo Council Meeting, which took place in the framework of the 14^th International Docomomo Conference: Adaptive Reuse. The Modern Movement Towards the Future in Lisbon (Portugal), on September 8, 2016.

The ISC Interior Design is co-chaired by Zsuzsanna Böröcz PhD (Docomomo Belgium, KU Leuven, University of Antwerp) and Bárbara Coutinho (MUDE Design Museum Lisbon, University of Lisbon).

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Members and Functions 2021-2024

Zsuzsanna Böröcz (Belgium), Chair
Bárbara Coutinho (Portugal), Chair
Marta Peixoto (Brasil), Secretary

Ana Tostões (Portugal), Member
Deniz Hasirci (Turkey), Member
Els De Vos (Belgium), Member
Eva Storgaard (Belgium), Member
Johan Örn (Sweden), Member
Marc Dubois (Belgium), Member
Mariël Polman (Netherlands), Member
Milena Kordic (Serbia), Member
Silvia Segarra (Mexico), Member
Zara Ferreira (Portugal), Member

ISC DESIGN/INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE/FURNITURE

Docomomo International Scientific Committee

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The ISC/Interior Design wishes to expand and deepen the study, discussion and dissemination of modern design, interior architecture and furniture, in order to create a plural discourse, be it thematical, chronological or geographical, beyond traditional boundaries.

The realms of design, interior architecture and furniture indisputably played a major part in the Modern Movement and life in the Modern Age. They are essential elements of a full experience and understanding of modern spatiality, ideology and aesthetic. The study of design, interior architecture and furniture is currently the object of increasing interest, with recent literature covering modernist interiors around the globe and approaching architecture, design and the fine arts with an interdisciplinary methodology. This is not the time to rest on laurels. Interior design requires much more in-depth study and more comprehensive debate in order to improve its appreciation, understanding and preservation. Questions such as modernity, privacy, efficiency, economy, comfort, utility and beauty in daily life and consumption need to be discussed. Product and graphic design, new materials and techniques, installations and devices also need to be considered. The ISC/Interior Design proposes to engage these and many other issues, promoting multidisciplinary research to disclose Modernity’s encounter with interiority and acknowledging the importance of its conservation.

Subject to frequent renewal and replacement, interior design clearly represents a more ephemeral side of architectonic creation. Just like anything considered ordinary and intertwined with the make-up of daily life, the interiors, more than singular objects or buildings, are permanently on the brink of extinction. At the same time, paradoxically – or maybe not – interiors are outstanding source material for understanding the cultural condition of a period. Arguably more than any other form of expression, it is the interior with its combination of artistic contributions that most intimately reflects the spirit of an age.

We endorse the main goals expressed in the Eindhoven-Seoul Statement of Docomomo International, namely:

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1. Identify and promote the surveying of the works of the Modern Movement which will include a general register, drawings, photographs and manuscript archives;
2. Foster and disseminate the development of appropriate techniques and methods of conservation;
3. Oppose destruction and disfigurement of significant works;
4. Explore and develop the knowledge of the Modern Movement.

Following the main goals of Docomomo, we intend to:

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1. Contribute with technical knowledge and principles to the restoration and preservation strategies in design products, equipments and environments;
2. Investigate, develop and evaluate new approaches to the history, museum studies and museology of Modern design;
3. Submit applications in order to develop projects and Databases of Modern Design;
4. Create a virtual museum of modern design for exhibitions, archive of technical drawings and documentation and publication of academic essays;
5. Certify the authorship and authenticity of the multiple copies and reproductions of design pieces available nowadays.

Past, Present and Future Activities

2023 | Review: Educating the Interior Designer conference in Ghent
On September 8, 2023, the conference ‘Educating the interior designer’ took place in an unusually warm and sunny Ghent, Belgium. It gathered scholars interested in the history of educational practices specific to interior design, convinced of their valuable contribution in situating the professionalization of the design discipline throughout the twentieth century …
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2023 | Pre-event: Reconstructing Modern interiors – 18th International Docomomo Conference
The challenge of researching and reusing interiors, often detached from their architectural exteriors, introduces a methodological complexity encompassing a range of questions that extend beyond the immediate subject. Questions about the dissociation between use (actual or past), the artistic meaning of the designer, and the design process are variables that need to be considered as part of the research itself …
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We are more then happy to announce the N°66 Docomomo Journal on Modern Plastic Heritage which combines the spirit of the multi-facetted technology dossiers into a fully-fledged journal bridging documentation and conservation has been published. Focus of the journal is on plastic and synthetic materials in building and interior design contexts. This Docomomo Journal 66 is the result of collaboration between the docomomo International Specialist Committees of Technology and that of Interior Design bridging the disciplines from product to interior design and to architecture.
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2022 | Symposium on Modern Interiors in Turkey 2, Yaşar University
The second symposium on Modern Interiors in Turkey, co-organized by Yaşar University Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design and docomomo_tr Interior Architecture Committee, was held online between 13-14 June 2022. As part of the symposium, Barbara Coutinho and Zsuzsanna Böröcz, the co-chairs of Docomomo International Specialist Committee on Interior Design (ISC-ID), made a speech on the goals, objectives and contributions of the committee to modern interior design and architecture. The video of this speech is here available at youtube channel of docomomo_tr interior design commitee.
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2021 | Contribution to the open discussion
Modernism Frozen. Urbanism and Architecture under/after Covid-19
Learning from Modern Movement Interiors in Times of Pandemic.
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2020 | Symposium Docomomo Turkey (online)
“Modern Interiors in Turkey”
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and establishment DOCOMOMO Turkey Modern Interior Committee
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2019 | International Conference and Workshops
Living in Colour – Colour and Paint in the Modern Interior and Related Restoration Practices
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2018 | International Conference and Workshop
Plastics in Modern Movement Interiors Conservation and (re-) design of synthetic Finishing, Furniture and Products 
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2016 | Lecture Series: Inside Belgian Modernism II
Three cases on design for the industrialized society, and what to do with them today.
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2016 | 14th International Docomomo Conference, Lisbon
Session 21: The Modern Interior – Toward a Re-Evaluation in the Context of Adaptive Reuse by Zsuzsanna Böröcz and Bárbara Coutinho.
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2015 | Lecture Series: Inside Belgian Modernism I
Four cases on interiors for the industrialized society, and what to do with them today.
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