The interior designer and the interior architect. The multifaceted professionalization of a discipline in 1990s Flanders

This article examines the shifting nomenclature of interior design in 1990s Flanders (Belgium). It focuses on the renaming of a collection of higher educational programs in “binnenhuisarchitectuur” [domestic indoor architecture], either as “interieurarchitectuur” [interior architecture] or as “interieurvormgeving” [interior design]. This duality, which persists today, reflects stratifications within the profession that were shaped by differing approaches to its professionalization. This article discusses two aspects of this duality. Firstly, it shows how competing groups within the profession sought varying degrees of professional autonomy, pursued through the integration of academic knowledge into curricula as a means to elevate their educational status. Secondly, the article evaluates how these divergent professional ideals related to broader cultural developments. “Interior architects” increasingly aligned themselves with architectural practice, with “spatial” ways of designing becoming a key marker for professional legitimacy. Within Flanders’ burgeoning architectural culture, professional autonomy was also linked to a distinctly minimalist aesthetic. As such, this article demonstrates that for interior designers to assert their professional autonomy, they also adhered to a dominant “architectural logic.”