Dr. Gregory Marinic, Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Interiors and Associate Professor in the College of Design, was recently published in Interiors Beyond Architecture (Routledge, 2018). Co-edited by Deborah Schneiderman and Amy Campos, the book focuses on atypical spaces where interiors exist either autonomously without architecture or transcend the conventional architectural envelope. Individual chapters explore inhabitable art, infrastructural interiors, stage sets, exhibitions, repurposed interiors, mobile interiors, extreme environments, interior landscapes, and interiors formed by nature.
Marinic’s chapter – Interiors for Extreme Environments – examines extreme interiorities that began emerging in the late 1950s. It narrates how the Cold War and Space Age transformed global expectations for living in space and within extreme conditions on Earth. Situated through utopianism and futurism, his chapter theorizes how popular culture, cinematic productions, and technological achievements shaped an interior-oriented discourse that influenced the design language of hermetically-enclosed spaces. It analyzes the development of spacecraft and autonomous communities, while considering the impact of shifting socio-economic, political, climatic, and dystopian conditions on extreme interiorities today.