Abstract

The interior design discipline has traditionally relied on the strength of its connections with architectural history and theory for critical and professional relevance. The relatively recent entry of interior design education into academic institutions, along with prevailing attitudes related to the alignment of interior design education with the practices, theories and methodologies of architecture, and the extended debates on this position has resulted in the discipline identity being continually contested within scholarship and practice. In the context of increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration in built environment practice and education, the field of interior design is at an interesting intersection regarding possibilities for collaboration in continually shifting discipline territories. This paper will examine scholarship on the increasing focus of interdisciplinary learning in higher education along with current debates positioning discipline identity as pivotal to the future of interior design in the Australian context. Debates concerning contestation at the borders of this practice and scholarship call into question the need for disciplinarity in interior design prior to effective and meaningful cross disciplinary collaboration.