Occupation: negotiations with constructed space

Terry Meade (Editor), Luis Diaz (Editor), Isobel Creed (Editor)

Research output: Book/ReportBook - edited

Abstract

This is a publication of refereed papers from an international conference held at the University of Brighton in 2009. The book contains the abstracts of 49 conference papers and the attached CD holds the full papers. Practitioners, researchers and designers in fields of Spatial Design, Interior Design, Art and Architecture from the United Kingdom, Europe and Australasia, contributed to an exploration of the way spaces may be formed through processes and layers of inhabitation. The term ‘Occupation’ broadly encompasses the connection of human life with larger systems of social and technical organisation, as well as the coupling between everyday conduct and spatial context. Themes such as Place, Time, Appropriation, Memory and Imagination were assembled in order to frame the investigations. Many of the papers incorporated several of these themes and proposed additional categories to reveal new and interesting combinations. Issues of inhabitation, enclosure and containment are of critical importance in this new century and an understanding of relationships between politics, place and space is indispensable for any sort of practice today. From the early stages of the conference, it became clear that there are many and varying correspondences between this word and its associated meanings. Papers range from the inhabitation of domestic interiors to the occupation of the city and include practice-based research alongside experimental techniques for recording everyday events and situations. Together, this collection communicates a diverse but exhilarating understanding of the depth, complexity and variety of transactions between people and buildings. What they all have in common is that each in their different ways suggests that we cannot understand occupation unless we are willing to think about interior space. Not necessarily interiors formed by walls or building, but the inhabitation of significant places over which an individual or a group has a claim. By placing the figure of the occupier foremost, the contributors have generally shunned the notion of fixed relationships between figures and buildings, promoting instead a critical response to a rich and complex area of investigation.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherUniversity of Brighton
Number of pages76
ISBN (Print)9781905593736
Publication statusPublished - 26 Sept 2013

Bibliographical note

© 2013 University of Brighton. Copyright of the papers contained in this volume remains the property of the authors.

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