Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Interior design helps to shape all aspects of our lives and has now come of age both intellectually and professionally. This text sets out to change and clarify the perceptions and misconceptions about contemporary interior design by examining some of the key issues that define what it is, how it is different from architecture, what specific skills it requires and what design problems it solves. The book also aspires to provide new creative possibilities which can help not only to expand and distinguish the discipline but also elevate its stature and esteem. Provocatively written by one of the foremost educators and practitioners in the field, this book will be essential for all interior design students and teachers, as well as appealing to practitioners.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Picture credits (p. 4)
• Author's acknowledgments (p. 5)
• Preface (p. 6)
• Introduction (p. 8)
• The Search for Shelter (p. 11)
• Shelter's Human Roots
• The Lost Origins of Building
• Reclaiming the Past
• Being (p. 35)
• Interior Space and the Second Skin
• Extensipns of Self
• The Un-Universal Man
• Design for Basic Human Needs (Measures of Man)
• Design for Well-Being
• Inside (p. 81)
• The Emergence of Prevailing Stereotypes
• The Psychology Analogy
• Empirical Knowledge
• Designing Habitable Space
• Design (p. 119)
• Toward a New Design
• Acknowledging Design's Complex Nature
• The Development of Experiential Knowledge
• Establishing a Protocol for Phenomenological Investigations
• The Identification of Qualitative Design Factors
• Epilogue: Out From Within (p. 167)
• Endnotes (p. 182)
• Further reading (p. 193)
• Index (p. 198)