Professor Graeme Brooker | Royal College of Art (original) (raw)

Videos by Professor Graeme Brooker

In conversation with Jonathan Forster - Designer, Educator, and host of the Multi Story Thinking ... more In conversation with Jonathan Forster - Designer, Educator, and host of the Multi Story Thinking Podcast on Interior Design
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/multi-story-thinking/id1469014157

MULTI-STORY-THINKING
Architectural, interior and furniture design

33 views

A talk given on January 8th 2021 for the Interior Architecture students at the Eastern Mediterra... more A talk given on January 8th 2021 for the Interior Architecture students at the Eastern Mediterranean University. I discuss my research work, my students work, in the Interior Reuse platform that I have run for 5 years at the RCA, and then I describe 50 terms for reuse which I use regularly and which I hope become useful to describe what this aspect of the interior entails.

413 views

Books by Professor Graeme Brooker

THE PEDAGOGIES OF REUSE, 2024

he Pedagogies of Re-Use captures the amazing digital gathering of students, academics, practition... more he Pedagogies of Re-Use captures the amazing digital gathering of students, academics, practitioners, and activists that happened at the International School of Re-Construction. Involving over 100 people, from countries as far apart as Brazil, Canada, Ireland, UK, Spain, Germany, Greece, UAE and China, the participants spent two weeks working in 11 teams to consider architectural propositions responding to the current climate and ecological emergency. This book documents the work of the 11 teams, considering the themes they pursued, the student projects proposed, and the final design ideas developed by each group. Supplemented with images of the work, the book also includes leading academics and professionals who supported the school and contribute their voices to these crucial issues of de-construction, re-use and adaptation. It is ideal reading for students and academics looking at the issues created by the climate emergency to which architecture must respond.

IFI-D2D, 2023

Short opinion piece for the IFI magazine.

INTERIOR FUTURES, 2019

Interior Futures grapples with the impossibility of beginning to imagine the future, and situates... more Interior Futures grapples with the impossibility of beginning to imagine the future, and situates this struggle within the already contested space of the interior. Unlike other books written by and often for interior designers, this book features outsider, avant-garde and even renegade perspectives on the future of the interior and intentionally probes and provokes. Within each scenario, the consequences of pervasive, emergent and often disruptive behaviours, technologies, materials and actors are played out, forcing a departure from the comfort of any one disciplinary position. Far from suggesting that what can only happen next is an uninhabitable dystopia, this confection of creative, imaginative, poetic and portentous scenarios posit that despite a sense of infinite instability, the equilibrium of non-aligned bodies set in constant motion still offers a sense of belonging. In effect, this book offers a compelling mandate for tomorrow’s interior designers, and may even serve to identify both the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

50 words for reuse, 2021

50|50 Words is a collection of language to describe reuse. It is not a taxonomy, a word that stuf... more 50|50 Words is a collection of language to describe reuse. It is not a taxonomy, a word that stuffs all it encounters, nor is it a hectoring bleat. It is a minifesto; a big shout in small type. Why 50? Well, why not? Each word is an instrument; a contrivance chosen deliberately in order to activate another 50 associations. Words are like buildings. They reflect cultures and embody continuous change.

The revisions of both are comprehended through the processes of reuse. Yet, present lexes do not effectively describe the future of the past. 50|50 is both polemic and a paean. The idiosyncratic poetry of a voice finding its feet. Its claim is to declare a current vocabulary, one that articulates centuries of practice, the unfinished business of words and buildings in unending change.

MAJA-MAJA -ESTONIAN ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW , 2020

Interview with me

The Architect, 2020

This paper examines how building reuse is a fundamental process to making interior space. By inte... more This paper examines how building reuse is a fundamental process to making interior space. By interpreting three 'contexts', proximities, inhabitations and identities, lenses through which the primary concerns of the architecture, design and decoration of the interior, and a number of strategies through which these contexts can be activated to solve particular problems such as reworking the existing matter to be found on site, assisting in how occupation may take place in the new environment and how they act as devices that relay particular spatial identities. In a world of finite resource, when the manipulation of what is already with us is increasingly prescient, hence the remaking and remodelling of existing environments is an increasingly important approach. As opposed to straightforward demolition, reusing existing spaces not only utilises sustainable approaches to the built environment, but it also reinforces continuous links between the past and the present, reinforcing identity and connection to spaces and places. Besides, reworking existing matter also requires a unique sensibility, one that is comfortable with the ambiguities of authorship and the challenges of manipulating existing material into new elements and space. Because of this, arguably, a situation which loosens the traditional roles between the architectural container, the interior, and the built environment is inevitable. A situation which Ross Exo-Adams describes as ultimately the 'interiorising of all of architecture'.

RIAS Quarterly, 2017

Review of my book Adaptations by Rachel Simmonds, ECA.

Brinkworth: So Good So Far, 2019

Since 1990, the London- and New York-based design studio Brinkworth has realised over 2,500 proje... more Since 1990, the London- and New York-based design studio Brinkworth has realised over 2,500 projects in 80 countries. The beginnings of the studio, primarily as a design and build workshop, has infused the practice with an obsession with making and process. All of its projects exemplify this approach: one based on a fascination with fabrication and a precision with details. Their work is epitomised by pioneering interior and experiential environments, innovative new-build architecture and inventive furniture and product designs. In essence, Brinkworth projects are renowned for their carefully crafted and meticulously assembled qualities: environments and elements that typify their fascination with design, detail and materials.

Beautifully illustrated with colour photographs and concept sketches of Brinkworth's innovative projects, this is the first book to bring together the complete range of the company’s internationally renowned and award-winning work. It’s insightful in-depth interviews – with partners Adam Brinkworth and Kevin Brennan, along with a range of their clients and other members of the Brinkworth team – throw light on their unique design process and creative collaborations.

I am the series editor for Lund-Humphreys for the designing interiors series. Please contact me i... more I am the series editor for Lund-Humphreys for the designing interiors series. Please contact me if you have an idea about a book you want to discuss.

This collection addresses interiority as a concept debated by artists and philosophers, historian... more This collection addresses interiority as a concept debated by artists and philosophers, historians and sociologists alike. From Augustine to Montaigne, from the monk’s cell to the Renaissance studiolo, the artist’s studio and the modern library, the interior has provided subjectivity with a protective layer that defined one’s identity and its relation to the world. The goal of this interdisciplinary collection is to approach interiority and the interior as relational entities that interact with architectural spaces, visual arts and music, social and political ideologies, geographical and historical structures. How does the interior—of mankind, of the earth, of architecture—affect identity, its historical, cultural and artistic representation? How do we think of the interior other than as Cartesian solipsism or as a volatile architectural decorum? How does the Earth’s interior relate to the world we experience every day? Just as the façade relates a building to the public space and betrays something of its interior structure, the interior is hereby approached as a space that mediates between the psyche, its history and its impact onto the world.

The second volume of the groundbreaking book on adapting the existing built environment.

Please find attached a link for the book details and the introduction and chapter.

Interior space encloses the daily routines of human life. Each space will invoke different respon... more Interior space encloses the daily routines of human life. Each space will invoke different responses due to their function and organisation, their history and atmosphere, and their environmental and material conditions. The room is central to the understanding of the interior. It is an enclosure of space within which occupancy, in its myriad of forms, takes place. This is a book about the history of Twentieth Century Interior Design, as told through a series of exemplary interiors and rooms.

The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design, Jul 2013

The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design offers a compelling collection of original essay... more The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design offers a compelling collection of original essays that seek to examine the shifting role of interior architecture and interior design, and their importance and meaning within the contemporary world. Interior architecture and interior design are disciplines that span a complexity of ideas, ranging from human behaviour and anthropology to history and the technology of the future. Approaches to designing the interior are in a constant state of flux, reflecting and adapting to the changing systems of history, cultur and politics. It is this process that allows interior design to be used as evidence for indentifying patterns of consumption, gender, identity and social issues. The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design provides a pioneering overview of the ideas and arrangements within the two disciplines that make them such important platforms from which to study the way humans interact with the space around them. Covering a wide range of thought and research, the book enables the reader to investigate fully the changing face of interior architecture and interior design, while offering questions about their future trajectory.

From Organisation to Decoration: An Interiors Reader is a reader for students, scholars and pract... more From Organisation to Decoration: An Interiors Reader is a reader for students, scholars and practitioners interested in the theories, processes and principles of the aspects of the theory and practice of interior architecture, interior design and interior decoration.

The book is divided into three parts, which reflects the focus of the different strands. It aims to contextualise, explore and clarify past and present debates in all three areas of the field of interiors. Each section is concerned with the processes, histories and ideas that shape the interior and includes discussions about development, identity, organisation, conservation, material and surface concerns and attitudes towards the host building. A broad range of writings are included – cultural theory, historical essays, scholarly papers, commissioned texts, extracts from books, interview transcripts, and magazine and newspaper articles. A case study and an annotated guide to further reading concludes each section, thus offering a succinct overview of the theories and ideas underpinning the interior for the beginner, as well as providing stimulation for students and practitioners in the field.

Re-readings is an authoritative testament to the complex process of remodelling existing building... more Re-readings is an authoritative testament to the complex process of remodelling existing buildings. Although buildings have always been reused, the process of doing so has rarely been treated as an artform. In recent years, however, a huge amount of press coverage has been devoted to remodelling projects such as the Tate Modern in London, the Baltic Art Factory in Gateshead, the Grand Louvre pyramid and courtyard, and the Reichstag in Berlin, to name but a few.

By attracting prestigious architects to its practice, it would appear that remodelling, once the dowdy cousin of the more glamorous architecture, has gained a new respectability. Re-readings responds to remodelling as an artform, making sense of the considerable structural, aesthetic, environmental, contextual and programmatic challenges of remodelling existing buildings. Illustrated throughout with a rich international portfolio of case studies, it explains the theory behind the way that architects and designers interpret and adapt buildings.

The study and practice of designing interior spaces is a constantly evolving subject. However des... more The study and practice of designing interior spaces is a constantly evolving subject. However despite the popularity of interior design at both undergraduate and post-graduate level, there is still very little legislation or definition available.
What is Interior Design? aims to serve as an introduction for students, scholars, and practitioners who have an interest in interior design and architecture. This book examines the fundamental characteristics of interior space—the analysis and understanding of existing buildings, the nature and qualities of organising an
interior space, and an understanding of the material and surface qualities of found and applied textures. What is Interior Design? contextualises current issues around education and practice, examines both
historical and contemporary concerns in design, and looks at the work of key practitioners in the field.

The subject of interior architecture currently lacks a detailed and educationally focussed text. ... more The subject of interior architecture currently lacks a detailed and educationally focussed text. The new Basics Interior Architecture series will fill this gap, and expand students knowledge of interior design/interior architecture and give an insight into some of the principles and methods of professional interior architects. The first book in the Basics Interior Architecture series, Form & Structure will examine the basic ideas that underpin the design and remodelling of interior space, from the establishment of a relationship between the existing building and the new components that inhabit it, to the careful positioning and design of significant elements within the space. The book will propose a method of analysis, understanding and exploitation of the existing building that can be used to realise the design of a new insertion.

MULTI-STORY-THINKING
Architectural, interior and furniture design

33 views

413 views

THE PEDAGOGIES OF REUSE, 2024

IFI-D2D, 2023

Short opinion piece for the IFI magazine.

INTERIOR FUTURES, 2019

50 words for reuse, 2021

MAJA-MAJA -ESTONIAN ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW , 2020

Interview with me

The Architect, 2020

RIAS Quarterly, 2017

Review of my book Adaptations by Rachel Simmonds, ECA.

Brinkworth: So Good So Far, 2019

The second volume of the groundbreaking book on adapting the existing built environment.

Please find attached a link for the book details and the introduction and chapter.

The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design, Jul 2013

There are currently few detailed and educationally focussed texts on the subject of interior arch... more There are currently few detailed and educationally focussed texts on the subject of interior architecture. The new Basics Interior Architecture series helps to fill this gap, and will expand students' knowledge of interior design/interior architecture and give an insight into some of the principles and methods of professional interior architects. The second in this series, Context & Environment examines the ways in which elements based both inside and outside of the host building can influence and effect the interior space. The book proposes a method of interpretation, evaluation and utilisation of physical factors, such as light and orientation, the contextual issues of the urban form and the subject of sustainability, and their influences on the design of the interior and the remodolling of existing buildings.

Basics Interior Architecture: Elements and Objects explores the manner in which an interior space... more Basics Interior Architecture: Elements and Objects explores the manner in which an interior space can be manipulated through the precise placement of forms. This title describes the principles underpinning the design of objects, and their placement within the interior space. It also discusses the influence that this has upon the character and perception of the space; providing focus or rhythm, controlling visual movement or expressing scale. Basics Interior Architecture: Elements and Objects teaches how the manipulation of objects and elements can create interior spaces of distinctive and apposite qualities.

Routledge eBooks, Jun 18, 2024

Routledge eBooks, Feb 9, 2024

Routledge eBooks, Jun 18, 2024

Routledge eBooks, Nov 19, 2021

Võrdlemisi sageli nenditakse, et sisearhitektuur on teoreetiliselt ebamäärane valdkond. 1 Sedasor... more Võrdlemisi sageli nenditakse, et sisearhitektuur on teoreetiliselt ebamäärane valdkond. 1 Sedasorti hägusus võib mõnikord olla ebamugav. Vahel viib see liighõlpsa oletuseni, et sisearhitektuur on olemuslikult pinnapealne ning ei allu mõtestamisele. Niisugune tabamatus on aga minu arvates interjööri raison d' être 2 , üks selle alustalasid. Just vastuokslikkus ja vabadus pakub sisearhitektuuriga tegelejaile nii praktilises, teaduslikus kui ka pedagoogilises plaanis palju tegutsemislusti. Käesolevas artiklis võetakse vaatluse alla väide, et sisearhitektuuri mõistmisel mängib keskset rolli teatud ruumiline, teoreetiline ja professionaalne kõhelus, milleta pole võimalik valdkonna olemust, selle pedagoogilisi, praktilisi, teoreetilisi, ajaloolisi ja kutsealaseid aspekte käsitleda.

IDEA, Jul 20, 2006

Remodelling existing buildings is the process of significantly changing a host building or struct... more Remodelling existing buildings is the process of significantly changing a host building or structure to accommodate new use. It differs to practices such as preservation and conservation in that it is the process of substantially altering an existing building. Remodelling could be described as a process that encourages a continuous approach to the adaptation of an enclosure or a site. The transformation of an existing structure is a procedure that initially consists of reading the site: a course of action that ensures solid or concealed matter such as the structure or the narrative of the building can be exposed and then developed as potential generators for the modification process-a course of action that Rodolfo Machado describes as: '… a process of providing a balance between the past and the future' (Machado, 1976, p. 27). This is a paper about the transformation of existing buildings where the history or narrative of the place that is to be reused is complicated by political, ideological, or an odious previous function. A site or building is described as contaminated when its past is dominated by a previous use that is disagreeable or objectionable. The edification or censorship of these infections is a complex matter for the designer to consider in the remodelling process. This paper examines three case studies where the designer has analysed and used the contamination of the building as a generator for remodelling. It suggests that there are three general approaches when using contamination as a starting point when significantly altering the interiors of infected existing buildings.

This essay is a short introduction to Interior Educators (IE). It is also a brief reflection on t... more This essay is a short introduction to Interior Educators (IE). It is also a brief reflection on the present as well as the recent past of the subject of interior architecture/design, a deliberation that was prompted by the title of the conference – ‘Interior Futures: from which this book is the result. This essay also provides an opportunity to speculate upon changes that are taking place within this discipline and how IE could be integral to those transformations. Finally, this essay offers the proposition that there is a previously unseen confidence that is now evident within this subject both at a global level as well as in the UK. This is a growing cogency that, in parallel to its past, is also key to its future and is instigated by educators within this subject: a logic that informs and defines the key intentions of IE.

(Re)Fit for (Re)Purpose describes, and exemplifies, what may happen when the life and the meaning... more (Re)Fit for (Re)Purpose describes, and exemplifies, what may happen when the life and the meaning of a particular object, or entity, is extended through its reuse. It will examine the idea that any useable thing, such as a particular object, or a building, can be (re) fitted for a purpose that it was never intended to accommodate. Using three exemplars, it will propose that these processes usually involve the careful and innovative engineering of any existing objects, usually in order to make new interior spaces. These processes are undertaken in order to make environments and elements capable of being transformed into something they were never intended to house, or to be. A (Re) Fit for (Re) Purpose approach will transform redundant or obsolete objects, elements, spaces and buildings, as well as in-use matter, by adapting it in such a way that it becomes refitted and thus rehabilitated. This approach negates the usual dependence on an architectured environment, the space in which an interior is often housed. Instead this essay will explore some examples of what interior space is like when it is made beyond the realms of the architectured envelope, in what I will term as a post-architecture environment.

In The Dialectics of Appropriation, I suggest that the ambiguous nature of Interior Architecture,... more In The Dialectics of Appropriation, I suggest that the ambiguous nature of Interior Architecture, can be understood through the exploration of a series of dualities. These dualities, or The Dialectics of Appropriation, give Interior Architecture its unique verbal and visual language. They are ideas and processes that inform the subject’s distinctive cultures of research, practice and education. These dualities might be viewed as often at odds with each other, yet it is my suggestion that dialectical conflict, the dichotomy of one idea superseding another, and thus rendering it obsolete, is, in this context, itself a redundant notion. Instead, the Dialectics of Appropriation forms the basis of the composite construct of Interior Architecture. That is a set of processes that give the subject its resonance and its distinct attributes.

Palgrave Communications, Jul 4, 2017

This essay will explore the implications of the reuse of existing buildings with which to make ne... more This essay will explore the implications of the reuse of existing buildings with which to make new interior space. It will advance the idea of the interiorscape: a fluid and dynamic landscape created by a series of particular activities, produced by agents in the field. I suggest that the interiorscape can be considered to be a spatial amalgam: a composite construct of historical, cultural and spatial formations. Interiorscapes are environments that are often devised for the realization of particular spatial identities for various forms of inhabitation, and are the result of a composite compound of both new and old material. In order to fully comprehend the interiorscape, this essay designates methods of reuse as progressions of integrative activities. These are processes that select, edit, reform, transform, and recontextualise existing objects, spaces and buildings. For clarity, Hegewald's and Mitra's description of reuse is employed. Based on their understanding of integrative processes, advancing the Interiorscape through the lens of reuse, leads to the origination and construction of what will be described as spaces that can be considered to be amalgams and composites. These are environments that, because they are constructed from many different elements, originated from numerous diverse timescales, they are what we term compounds: combinations of several distinctive physical and immaterial entities. All of which are amalgamated together, to forge new spatial meanings. This is the fundamental principle of the interiorscape. To conclude this essay, a critical underpinning of the interiorscape with the processes of reuse is drawn together, using various spatial exemplars with which to typify how scapes and amalgamated matter, produce unique compositely constructed interior environments. Entities, it is concluded, contain the fundamental principles of the conditions of interior space. This article is published as part of a collection on interiority.

Routledge eBooks, Nov 29, 2021

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc eBooks, 2017

Journal of Interior Design, Sep 15, 2016

Reuse contains an earlier existing element, which is taken out of its previous context and it con... more Reuse contains an earlier existing element, which is taken out of its previous context and it contributes to the creation of something distinct and novel in the present. This complex item can last as it contains an important element from the past and therefore constitutes continuity and contributes to the further establishment of tradition. As such, despite containing an element of the past, reuse looks forwards and not backwards. It does not represent an end but a new beginning (Hegewald & Mitra, 2012). This perspective essay is motivated by the ambition to appropriate thoughts prompted by Julia Hegewald and Subrata Mitra, and position reuse as a fundamental and distinct theme of the architecture, design, and decoration of interior space. In Re-use-The Art and Politics of Integration and Anxiety, the authors examine the utilization of reuse as a tool for analyzing and interpreting cultural and political change in ideas, objects, and environments. They use South East Asian and Indian design cultures to explore a wide range of cultural and political matter, analyzing how reuse has impacted art, architecture, and jewelry as well as regional legislature and religious and cultural institutions.

The Art Book, Nov 1, 2010

A close-up of a bookshelf belonging to the architect Michael Graves. From Unpacking my Library: A... more A close-up of a bookshelf belonging to the architect Michael Graves. From Unpacking my Library: Architects and their Books by Jo Ste¡ens (ed.).

Interiors: Design, Architecture and Culture, May 4, 2017

This book will outline a history of interior design as told through fifty exemplary interiors tha... more This book will outline a history of interior design as told through fifty exemplary interiors that have been created during the twentieth century. This book will define the history of modern interior design as told through the development of the discipline of re-using existing buildings and spaces. It will outline the history of the development of the subject through a selection of interiors that have been created as autonomous spaces contained within an existing building envelope. Whilst the architectural container is acknowledged, these interiors have been created in an historic and stylistically independent manner. It is these interiors that constitute what might be considered as ‘exemplary’ forms of interior design. In other words the creation of interior space through reuse, interiors that are created independently of, as opposed to simultaneously with the envelope, involves the creation of the most prototypical forms of interior design. The author acknowledges that the principle will exclude many buildings housing what may be considered as ‘classic’ examples of modern interior spaces. But it is considered that this approach could allow interior design to separate itself from architectural history, and to develop its own spatial and historical discourse through specific exemplars of interior design.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc eBooks, 2013

Basics Interior Architecture 04: Elements / Objects, 2010

Basics Interior Architecture 04: Elements/Objects explores the manner in which an interior space ... more Basics Interior Architecture 04: Elements/Objects explores the manner in which an interior space can be manipulated through the precise placement of forms. The book describes the principles underpinning the design of objects, and their placement within the interior space. It also discusses the influence that this has upon the character and perception of the space; providing focus or rhythm, controlling visual movement or expressing scale. The book teaches readers how the manipulation of objects and elements can create interior spaces of distinctive and apposite qualities.

The Visual Dictionary of Interior Architecture and Design, 2009

The Visual Dictionary of Interior Architecture and Design is a comprehensive guide to the numerou... more The Visual Dictionary of Interior Architecture and Design is a comprehensive guide to the numerous terms associated with, and used within, the fields of interior architecture and design. Over 250 terms are explained and contextualised, with concise definitions accompanied by illustrations and examples taken from traditional and contemporary interior architecture. The dictionary covers traditional terms still in current usage as well as modern terminology such as hyper-reality and sustainability. It also defines a wide variety of practical terms, such as elevation, installation, and function, and conceptual terms including constructivisim, minimalism, and formalism.

Le Monde Newspaper, 2019

short review of a book I have an essay in.