PhD Courses in Denmark

Seen through an architect's drawing, interiors appear as clear, organized spaces that can be described objectively and inhabited or used according to clear rules. The real inhabitation of these spaces, however, is much more convoluted. The way furniture is arranged, the placement of objects and clutter, personal spatial configurations, as well as the inhabitation of real people, result in the traces of a multitude of events, uses and scenarios. It is often the small details that make a big difference to the people who inhabit, imagine and use the rooms.

The purpose of the course is to explore interiors as versatile, ambiguous and complex phenomena. Through social history, architectural history, design, art and anthropology, multifaceted, and even sometimes paradoxical aspects of interiors will be unfolded. We will discuss how such phenomena can be grasped and comprehended without the complexity of the topic negating a genuine and rigorous analytical discourse.

Several examples will be presented, forming the basis of the course and these will be studied through academic texts. In addition, we will take an excursion to two museums where interiors are reconstructed in disparate ways to further inform our discussion: the Open Air museum and a local museum of dolls houses. Participants are asked to submit an image and a draft paper describing examples of versatile interiors that will be discussed in a group format. Two central questions will be addressed:

• How can interiors be comprehended in all their complexity?
• How can the ambiguity of interiors be framed through the proposed theoretical perspectives?

Ideal notions of the perfect, smooth efficient home are met by the pragmatics and contradictions of reality. Expensive renovations portend dreams that may not come true. Tableaus that mimic the hotel room or point to castles and manors become something else in everyday use and wear. Ambiguities between dream and reality and between use and imagination are negotiated between the objects and spaces of the interior. Although we will study several types of interiors, including a series of historic interiors the major focus of the cases will be the home.

The course will study a multiplicity of interiors. These will include examples of hoarder homes, homes with glossy surfaces and white walls, haunted homes, artist’s homes, dolls houses as well as home workspaces. Furthermore, the course will focus on design principles in historical interiors, i.e., within the early modern period, and their relation with the present. Topics such as diffuse or limitless boundaries of space and cases where the exterior, urban space and landscape are drawn into the interior are discussed.

Dates
3-6 Nov, 2026.

ECTS
5

Application deadline
1 October 2026