Tricia Austin - Narrative Environments and Experience Design: Space as a Medium of Communication

Narrative Environments and Experience Design

This book argues that narrative people and place are inseparable and pursues the consequences of this insight through the design of narrative environments.

This is a new and distinct area of practice that weaves together and extends narrative theory, spatial theory and design theory. Examples of narrative spaces, such as exhibitions, brand experiences, urban design and socially engaged participatory interventions in the public realm, are explored to show how space acts as a medium of communication through a synthesis of materials, structures and technologies, and how particular social behaviours are reproduced or critiqued through spatial narratives.

This book will be of interest to scholars in design studies, urban studies, architecture, new materialism and design practitioners in the creative industries.

Tricia Austin is Director of the MA in Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK.

Cover image adapted from a photograph of Making Beauty by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva at the Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham University 2016. Photo and adaption: Tricia Austin.

Routledge Research in Design Studies

Routledge Research in Design Studies is a new series focusing on the study of design and its effects using analytical and practical methods of inquiry. Proposals for monographs and edited collections on this topic are welcomed.

Thinking Design Through Literature
Susan Yelavich

Labor and Creativity in New Yorks Global Fashion Industry
Christina H. Moon

Wayfinding, Consumption, and Air Terminal Design
Menno Hubregtse

Narrative Environments and Experience Design
Space as a Medium of Communication
Tricia Austin

Contemporary Processes of Text Typeface Design
Michael Harkins

For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Design-Studies/book-series/RRDS

Narrative Environments and Experience Design

Space as a Medium of Communication

Tricia Austin

First published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Taylor & Francis

The right of Tricia Austin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Austin, Tricia, 1954- author.
Title: Narrative environments and experience design: space as a medium of communication/Tricia Austin.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019057599 (print) | LCCN 2019057600 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367138042 (hbk) | ISBN 9780367138073 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Communication in architecture. | Space (Architecture)Psychological aspects.
Classification: LCC NA2584 .A97 2020 (print) | LCC NA2584 (ebook) | DDC 720.1/03dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057599
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057600

ISBN: 978-0-367-13804-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-13807-3 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India

To Natalie and Claudie

Contents

The colour plate section is placed between p. 107 and 108

There are many people to whom I am indebted in the writing of this book. I owe a special debt to my present and former colleagues from MA Narrative Environments, in the Spatial Practices Programme at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, who have contributed so much to the development of the design of environments. I am particularly grateful to Tom Butler, Sarah Featherstone, Kevin Flude, Claire Healy, Ingrid Hu, Stuart Jones, Xavier Llarch Font, Joel Lewis, Andrea Lioy, Dr. Jona Piehl and Bethany Shepherd. I am also very grateful to my PhD students who have each pursued an aspect of narrative environments in depth and helped to inform the practice. They are Clare Brown, Dr. Brian Dixon, Dr. Silvia Grimaldi, Valerie Mace, Matt Haycocks, Julia Pitts, Olga Surawska and Ryo Terui. I would also like to thank our MA Narrative Environments graduates for their inspiring interpretation of the practice and particularly those whose remarkable innovations are featured in the book. They are the Decorators, Nele Vos, Chloe Morris, Melissa Mongiat, Kelsey Snook, Julie Howell, Hannes Palsson and Zishu Zhou. I must also mention the inspirational industry figures who have kindly spent time being interviewed, and many of whom have contributed images to the book. They are Mouna Andreos, Andy Bass, Ruedi Baur, Julien de Casabianca, Dosfotos, Tim Gardom, Alison Grey, Usman Haque, Peter Higgins, Mass Design, Noel McCauley, Brendan McGetrick, Robin McNicholas, Dr. Noah Raford, David Rich, Polly Richards, Ronald Rietveld, Adam Scott, Thomas Sevcik, Teil Silverstein, Katherine Skellon, Anna Strongman and Sam Willis. I would also like to thank Central Saint Martins for an award that gave me the time to develop and write the book. Finally, special thanks go to Bethany Shepherd who designed the diagrams and to Allan Parsons who edited the draft text and without whom it would not have been possible to complete the book. I am also very grateful to Katie Armstrong at Routledge for her support in editing the book.

This book formalises the research and knowledge that have emerged from the MA in Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, a postgraduate degree instigated in 2003 at the behest of leading design practitioners in the UK. In the early 2000s, the creative industries were living through a post-millennial boom in the demand for novel visitor experiences to cultural centres, brand experiences and leisure and urban environments. In this diverse, expanding, international market, companies and organisations were seeking open-minded creative practitioners who could transcend their own disciplines and collaborate across architecture, communication design, interaction design, scenography and curation. The MA programme drew these disciplines into a multidisciplinary, team-based practice, challenging individualism, traditional educational specialisation and entrenched professional hierarchies, all of which can stifle momentum in advancing design practice.

In 2003, urban planning, architecture and design were very different kinds of educational programmes, with distinctive vocabularies and methods, discouraging collaboration. Overcoming this lack of collaboration is important because, in practice, it is planners and architects who conventionally take the first step in reinventing our lived environment. In this regime, the functionality of the physical space usually takes precedence over the experience of the space. Content developers, spatial designers, communication designers and interaction designers typically enter the fray only at a later stage, by which time they are often limited by the physical structures that have already been signed off. Problems can then arise. For example, city planners may leave insufficient space for diverse civic life; corporate master planners may prioritise efficiency and maximum return on investment, creating bland, uninviting swathes of city; architects may prioritise aesthetics and impressive feats of engineering above the social dynamics of neighbourhood, producing landmark architecture which may play little role in urban vitality. Cultural institutions may be designed with dramatic, light-filled architectural forms but, when in use, these often require additional complex and costly internal structures to exhibit artefacts, stage performances or hold social gatherings. In short, hierarchical regimes can lead to urban forms and public spaces that are not fit for purpose. Consequently, these spaces may fail in social and economic terms. To address some of the problems arising from such hierarchical processes, MA Narrative Environments has consistently advocated and practised a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach whereby content and design are considered together from the start and the experience of the future inhabitant or visitor is researched, envisaged and incorporated as part of the planning. This strategy has led to a new, expanded, holistic area of practice: the design of narrative environments.