Living Spaces as Art: Rethinking Interiors for Modern Life

In São Paulo’s Morumbi district, the Veredas Apartment by TACOA Arquitetos redefines domestic interiors. Completed in 2022, it features exposed concrete walls with carved wooden niches. A striking cumaru wood volume serves as storage and an interactive sculpture. Architect Gabriel Kogan states, "We aim to resist the ordinary box interior and carve out pockets of discovery."

Across the Atlantic, Giulia De Appolonia’s project in Genoa presents an open-plan living area framed by a folded yellow volume. Completed in early 2023, this design employs lacquered MDF panels to create a zigzagging feature along the floor and ceiling. It serves as shelving and lighting, casting dramatic shadows at sunset. The client, a painter, desired a space that blurred gallery and home.

These projects provoke interaction and contemplation. Curator Beatrice Galilee noted this shift in her 2021 anthology Radical Architecture of the Future, emphasizing that "such interiors embrace the confrontation between utility and aesthetic risk." The Genoa volume prioritizes visual impact over conventional storage, while the cumaru block in Veredas reclaims spatial dominance from furniture.

This aesthetic-functional duality extends beyond small residences. In Copenhagen, Studio David Thulstrup’s Stilleben No. 2 showroom (2022) disguises its retail purpose. Thin perforated steel partitions hang from polished concrete floors, guiding movement and framing displays as museum pieces. Seated areas invite pause, allowing customers to use the space like a public lounge. Thulstrup explains, "The design reflects not just commerce but an argument for slow, deliberate experiences."

These examples raise questions about interior design’s role in an efficiency-driven world. Is there room for art in living spaces? De Appolonia argues that function and form are not opposites. "Why can’t a shelf also be a sculpture? Why can’t walking through a room feel like moving within a painting?" Her Genoa project encourages living with such questions rather than providing answers.

However, the bespoke nature of these designs limits wider adoption. The unique craftsmanship of Veredas' cumaru centerpiece and Genoa's assembly requires significant investment. Similar projects demand coordination among designers, fabricators, and artisans, extending timelines and inflating costs. The folded yellow volume reportedly cost €24,000 (~$25,500) excluding installation, while off-the-shelf storage options average less than 10% of that price.

Innovations in material technology could democratize this approach. Modular systems, like the Plural shelving system by Spanish studio MUT (2021), offer semi-customizable solutions at lower price points. Made from powder-coated aluminum, Plural’s components can be rearranged, embodying a "sculptural ethos" without bespoke expense. Whether such systems can replace high-art designs remains debated.

As interiors increasingly draw from sculpture, their ties to art institutions strengthen. Exhibitions like Home Futures at the Design Museum, London (2018), frame historic and speculative interiors as critical works. Milan’s Triennale (2023) debuted Unknown Fields, exploring the intersection of living spaces with social and ecological theory. Projects like the Genoa volume reflect layered meanings in spatial design beyond basic utility.

The future of interior design appears poised between efficiency and evocation. Works like Veredas and Genoa’s folded volume challenge us to dwell on the in-between.