The Decorative was a series of three semesters led in the Bachelor in Interior Architecture at HEAD – Genève. This pedagogical endeavor focused on contemporary domestic spaces and the roles of interior architects in their production. Over the three semesters, we examined housing production in Switzerland and Portugal, paying particular attention to their potentially generic aspects, shaped by real estate development and the broader commodification of housing. These generic interiors were ubiquitous and reduced the domestic realm to a container of objects and people, whose illusion of neutrality primarily served to facilitate integration into market norms.

In this context, interior architecture was often mistakenly perceived as a superfluous overlay that came after the “proper” architecture. This accusation of superficiality presupposed a narrow understanding of the value of the surfaces we inhabit and their capacity to shape our lives.

The final semester functioned as an opportunity to experiment with alternatives to generic housing, as well as to produce an archive and attempt to define the decorative and its potential role in contemporary housing production. Students began by examining the work of previous semesters and identifying recurring themes. The work maintained both a collective and an individual dimension. Projects were observed and categorized according to multiple criteria: character, fictional coherence, technical aspects, norms, economic constraints, construction, materials, scale, representation, and more.

The formulation of a curatorial statement on the notion of the “decorative” served as a foundation for new projects, offering an opportunity to rethink the very material from which apartments are made. In this context, the “decorative” signified a transgression of rationality and control, and became a mark of vitality, diversity, and intentionality on the part of interior architects.