Tacit knowledge in interior architecture: interior architects on the designer-paying client-user client relationship

Abstract

During the last decades, different authors have argued that interior architecture lacked a specific body of knowledge, especially in relationship to architecture (Abercrombie, 1990; Marshall-Baker, 2000; Clemons & Eckman, 2008). The article argues that this gap can be partially bridged by combining theoretical knowledge with insights into the actual design processes. In the actual process of designing interior spaces, some kind of knowledge production is involved (Heylighen et al., 2007), for which designers can rely on different knowledge types, such as ‘explicit’ and ‘tacit’ knowledge (Polanyi, 1967; Collins, 2010; Friedman, 2000). As the discipline of interior architecture is seeking a stronger body of theory (Marshall-Baker, 2000; Clemons & Eckman, 2008), it seems particularly interesting ‘to bring tacit knowledge into articulate focus’ (Friedman, 2000, p.13). Therefore, this paper aims to explore the concept of tacit knowledge and its particular value for interior architecture, and then, to present the results of in-depth interviews with interior architects, who have been involved in the process of designing commercial interiors.