The Moving Interior. Trains, Ocean Liners, Airplanes, Cars and the Underground

The workshop aims to explore the history, present and future of public transport interiors by focusing on both the upheavals and the continuities of its design. Given that it is the interior in which passengers physically and psychologically encounter new transport technologies, the underlying assumption behind the workshop is that the importance of the design lies in the function of mediating - by touch and sense - the experience of modern travel. The workshop will ask, why and how new forms of interaction between material conditions and the design of space are generated in the moving interior.

Programme

Friday, 20 February

  • 14.00 Introduction and Welcome : Charlotte Klonk/Franziska Solte
  • Chair: Robin Schuldenfrei
  • Cars 
  • 14.30 "Spaces of Modernity: Car Interiors since the Late Nineteenth Century", Penny Sparke (Modern Interiors Research Centre, Kingston University, London)
  • 15.15 "Lightweight vs. Comfort: The Structural Complexity in Automotive Seating", Frank Urban (Faurecia Autositze GmbH, Stadthagen)
  • 16.00 Coffee Break
  • Chair: Philipp Oswalt
  • Trains and the Underground 
  • 16.30 "Seeking Light - Going Underground", Charlotte Klonk (Institute of Art and Visual History, Humboldt-University, Berlin)
  • 17.15 "Packaging Passengers: Populuxe and the Train Interior", Gregory Votolato (Vehicle Design, Royal College of Art, London)
  • 18.00 "Mobility and Design - Mobile Spaces in Public Transportation", Jan Wielert (büro+staubach GmbH, Berlin)

Saturday, 21 February

  • Chair: Julia Meer
  • Ocean Liners 
  • 10:00 "Designing the Liner: National Imagination and Identification on Board the P&O", Daniel Davies (Middlesex University/ National Maritime Museum, London)
  • The Zeppelin 
  • 10.45 "The Lightest Hotels in the World. On the History of Zeppelin Interiors", Elisabeth Bergmann (Institute of History and Theory of Art and Architecture, Università della Svizzera italiana, Mendrisio)
  • 11.30 Coffee Break
  • Passengers 
  • 12.00 "Images of Passengers", Dortje Fink (Institute of Art and Visual History,Humboldt-University, Berlin)
  • 12.45 Lunch Break
  • Chair: Franziska Solte
  • Airplanes 
  • 14.00 "Why Fly? Evolution of the Commercial Aircraft Cabin", Barbara Hauss (Design History, Freiburg i. Br.)
  • 14.45 "The Aircraft Cabin in the Age of Sustainable Growth", Ralf God (Institute of Aircraft Cabin Systems, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg)
  • 15:30 Final Discussion

The workshop is open to the public. Please register in advance at franziska.solte[at]hu-berlin.de