Augmented Interiors

With the information age coming to an end, the augmented age is posing challenges to the future of the interior design discipline. Although the immediate concern revolves around the mass-produced design applications, 'one click interiors', and the lack of personal style as a victim of globalised trends, the realisation of Augmented Reality is challenging the core ingredient of interior design, the physical space. The perception of space is being re-invented allowing for an overhaul of 'home' as a defining feature. Inhabitation is no longer controlled by the rigidness of materiality, while the future of locality and memory is questionable. Subsided by the flexibility of a 'drop-down menu' offering limitless options that currently are considered utopian, the parameter of creativity and design are becoming variables to well-orchestrated algorithms. With both elements, 'interior' and 'design' being challenged, the philosophy of the discipline must be adapted to survive within the new computation system. Which is the skill-set required to secure interior designers against technological unemployment and how should academic curriculums be revised to prepare students for the future? Are the new augmented/digital spaces creating a new reality that is changing the way we interact challenging the boundaries between public and private spaces? Will the design of 'physical' space become the 'new' hand-made?