The essay uses phenomenological and psychoanalytical approaches (especially Elvio Fachinelli’s claustrophilic interiorisation) to explain that furnishings can be considered as a medium of inner development and well-being or a sort of material artifice between the individual and the world, between the desire for a privileged or representative personal space and whatever surrounds it. On the other hand, in addition to being physical structures, they identify a psychological space well suited to cultivating interiority: they enclose intimacy within intimacy, with the need to withdraw into a refuge or to build a space of one’s own being given a material form. This essay shows how some types of furnishings or recesses- studiolo, bed or window-which have become established as micro-environments over time, can be considered spatial and inhabitable paradigms of the phenomenology of an interno nell’interno. 4 Though it has different morphogeneses as well as different purposes, a constant feature is the presence of one inhabitable space, whether enclosed or open-air, within another. The interno nell’interno has precursors and analogies throughout the history of architecture, if one considers its archetypal quality as an “enclosure” 2 or its configuration as a “box within a box” Footnote 2 or a “double shell”. This essay has defined this type of space as an interno nell’interno. Such a place, limited in its dimensions, is on a more human scale, can be arranged differently and is sometimes temporary or movable. Through the design dynamics of the doubling and boxing of space, a second area is created within a larger space. In some cases the element of an additional border, which is physically distinct from its setting though included within it, appeared as early as the mid-fourteenth century. These are structures that, variously interpreted, are a constant in the history of interiors. This article is published as part of a collection on interiorities.įrom the Middle Ages to the twentieth century in Western culture examples of furnishings can be found that have given rise to a new type of space within another interior. Although this relationship was more evident in past ages, rather than in the present, the interpretational method adopted here is also offered as a possible key to studies of contemporary interiors. The purpose of the essay is to show that the history of furnishing and of interior design can be understood and interpreted in accordance with values complementary to those commonly used, values that adopt an interdisciplinary approach and problematicity as a method of study, in order to shed light on the actual relationship between interior and interiority. The studiolo, master bed and window can be considered mediums of inner development and wellbeing. In the conclusion, with the use of phenomenological and psychoanalytical approaches (especially Elvio Fachinelli’s claustrophilic interiorisation), the essay demonstrates that these three models were true rooms of interiority in past ages. The essay analyses them by drawing on authors who write on the history of art, literature, philosophy, psychology, interiority, in addition to specialized texts on the history of interiors and architecture. The three typologies are selected for their special character as paradigms in the history of furnishing and interior design and their unique character as spaces of interiority. The first two are analysed as pieces of furniture, while the window is analysed as a space. To demonstrate this close relationship between interior and interiority this essay chooses three typologies of the “interno nell’interno”: namely the studiolo, master bed and window. They permit people to withdraw into themselves, to have more intimacy, or engage in a privileged dialogue with others. These new spaces are often bound up with the desires for privacy, well-being and concentration. From the Middle Ages to the twentieth century in Western culture various types of furniture locate a specific type of space-made of wood, curtains or masonry-within a previous domestic space. This essay uses the Italian expression “l’interno nell’interno” to identify a specific case of the relationship between interior and interiority in the history of furnishing and interior design.
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