Sustainable ARTiculation: Adapting significant interiors to contemporary art galleries.

Historical interiors can certainly be seen as repositories for cultural sustainability. They have diachronic aesthetic value and provide us with cultural identity. Their physical materials and methods of construction offer us a connection to the past. These interiors and their functions often become obsolete and require new functions more suited to our modern-day society. Historical interiors commonly get converted into contemporary art exhibition venues. The re-programming of historical interiors helps to keep these places relevant. It becomes a sustainable alternative to desertion or demolition, and ruination. However, in many cases old interiors are adapted to contemporary white box galleries, which compromise their internal meaning and significance. Heritage legislation offers protection in this regard. However, these guidelines are vague and do not offer concrete methods on the responsive adaptation of historical interiors into contemporary exhibition spaces. To address this concern, additional methods for responsive adaptation are highlighted and investigated in this paper. This will be done by making reference to various art installations at the bi-annual Venice Bienalle. Through these cases we hope to provide insight to interior designer by showcasing the practical implementation of culturally sustainable approaches to historical interior conversions.

Historical interiors can certainly be seen as repositories for cultural sustainability. They have diachronic aesthetic value and provide us with cultural identity. Their physical materials and methods of construction offer us a connection to the past. These interiors and their functions often become obsolete and require new functions more suited to our modern-day society. Historical interiors commonly get converted into contemporary art exhibition venues. The re-programming of historical interiors helps to keep these places relevant. It becomes a sustainable alternative to desertion or demolition, and ruination. However, in many cases old interiors are adapted to contemporary white box galleries, which compromise their internal meaning and significance. Heritage legislation offers protection in this regard. However, these guidelines are vague and do not offer concrete methods on the responsive adaptation of historical interiors into contemporary exhibition spaces. To address this concern, additional methods for responsive adaptation are highlighted and investigated in this paper. This will be done by making reference to various art installations at the bi-annual Venice Bienalle. Through these cases we hope to provide insight to interior designer by showcasing the practical implementation of culturally sustainable approaches to
historical interior conversions.