Walter Benjamin observed in his writings on the interior that 'tolive means to leave traces.' This interior design theory readerfocuses on just how such traces might manifest themselves. In orderto explore interior design's links to other disciplines, theselected texts reflect a wide range of interests extending beyondthe traditional confines of design and architecture. It isconceived as a matrix, which intersects social, political, psychological, philosophical, technological and gender discourse, with practice issues, such as materials, lighting, colour, furnishing, and the body. The anthology presents a complex andsometimes conflicting terrain, while also creating a distinct bodyof knowledge particular to the interior. Locating theory on theinterior through these multifarious sources, it encourages futurediscourse in an area often marginalised but now emerging in its ownright.

Within the reader individual excerpts are referenced to theirplace in the matrix and sequenced alphabetically. This organisingstrategy resists both a chronological and themed structure in orderto provoke associations and inferences between excerpts. In thisway the book offers the possibility of examining the interior frommultiple vantage points: a disciplinary focus, the spatial andphysical attributes of interiors, historical sequence, and topicalissue based. Excerpts from Thomas Hope, Catherine E. Beecher andHarriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton and Charles Eastlake providecontemporary nineteenth century accounts as the profession emerges, whereas Barbara Penner, Penny Sparke, Charles Rice, Georges Teyssotand Rebecca Houze offer re-interpretations of this period. Thecomplexities of the twentieth-century interior are revealed byRobyn Longhurst, Kevin Melchionne, George Wagner, John MacgregorWise, Joel Sanders and many others.