The Modern Interior

goods) in this context. Gradually, as the power of the marketplace

expanded the means came to dominate the end and the idealized public

sphere interior became as important as, if not more so than, its realized

counterparts. Indeed, in that form, the modern interior became an

accomplice in the construction of the ‘irrational’ desire which under-

pinned the mass consumption of goods intended for ‘real’ interiors. The

result was that it became increasingly difficult to view them independently

and yet another level of ambiguity between the private and the public

spheres was created.

Another effect of the interior’s expanding relationship with mass

consumption was felt in retail spaces themselves. Arcades were covered

over to make the conditions for consuming more acceptable, and as a

consequence the idea of spaces within spaces, of rooms within rooms and

56 of stores within stores became increasingly widespread. The experiences

A breakfast table set with a service designed by Susie Cooper, displayed in the Bowman

Brothers’ Store, London, late 1930 s, illustrated in C. G. Holme, ed., The Studio Year

Book, 1939.