Reassembling the social interior : Historical spaces from contemporary viewpoints - Helen McCormack

Reassembling the social interior

Historical spaces from contemporary viewpoints

By: Helen McCormack (Editor), Jennifer Gray (Editor), Anne Nellis Richter (Editor)

Hardcover | 24 June 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover


$393.25

or 4 interest-free payments of $98.31 with

 or 

Available: 24th June 2025

Preorder. Will ship when available.

At the intersection of heritage, design history and contemporary art, this book offers new perspectives on the way historical interiors are encountered by, and viewed and presented for, present-day audiences. Many studies have highlighted the historical significance and meanings embedded in the landscape, architecture, decoration and objects to be found within houses and homes. But what about the social meanings of these spaces?

Central to this book is the idea that in reflecting, remaking and reimagining historical interiors, the contributions of artists, designers and craftspeople should be foregrounded in constructing ideas of authenticity, transparency, and materiality in the making process. The chapters present a range of case studies that reflect upon on how historical interiors are remade and reimagined by looking in and out; at how a reassembling of spaces ought to avoid 'a shrinking definition of the social itself' (Latour, 2005).

Surveying a range of interior 'types' from a number of historical periods, the book includes contributions from practitioners, scholars and makers. From digital reconstructions of a seventeenth-century Belgian constcamer to the interior and exterior worlds of specific historical figures, including Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Beatrix Potter, the book considers how these spaces have powerful significance for contemporary audiences, particularly in ways that are relatable to shared experiences of work, leisure, family, community, power and politics.

This book will be of interest to scholars of the history of interiors and collections, museology, archaeology, architectural history, art, and design history, as well as curators and caretakers of historical sites, spaces and objects.

More in Material Culture

The Children of Ash and Elm : A History of the Vikings - Neil Price
Notes on 'Camp' : Penguin Modern - Susan Sontag
A Coveted Possession : The Rise and Fall of the Piano in Australia - Michael Atherton
The Sword : Form and Thought - Lisa Deutscher
Shoes and the Georgian Man - Matthew McCormack

RRP $59.99

$49.25

18%
OFF
Shoes and the Georgian Man - Matthew McCormack
The Hidden History of the Smock Frock : Deception and Disguise - Alison  Toplis
Restaurant : Object Lessons - Brian Duff
Devotional Visualities : Seeing Bhakti in Indic Material Cultures - Karen Pechilis
Saxophone : Object Lessons - Mollie Hawkins
Thinking Through Fashion : A Guide to Key Theorists - Anneke Smelik