department store and the café – as well as in the modern hospital and
church – as they were in the home. In addition, the visual languages
through which it was expressed could range from Louis Quinze to
Streamlined Moderne. The modern interior addressed in this study can
be understood, therefore, in a very general sense, as the inside location of
people’s experiences of, and negotiations with, modern life.
One of the best documented of these negotiations was initiated by
a group of progressive architects and designers who were committed to
the idea that modern inside spaces not only mirrored modern experi-
8 ences but that, more importantly, they also played a role in constructingA shopping mall in Calgary, Alberta, 2005.006_018_Modern_Intro:Layout 1 30/5/08 15:31 Page 8