Shows like Changing Rooms have given it a bad reputation, but`architecture from the inside` can make all the difference to anarchitect`s dreams.Architects shape the way we live, fusing their own creative visionwith colossal feats of engineering. By contrast, interior designers getnowhere near the same respect. They just show up a bit later banging onabout pelmets and inventing new words to describe "beige", don`t they? Well, while Kelly Hoppen is certainly no Norman Foster,perhaps the subsequent design within our architecture deserves a littleof the reverence that`s usually reserved for the building itself. Maybegreat interior design can not only "make pretty" a particularstructure, it can also remedy some of its flaws. {Should a hallowedarchitect unthinkably create some edifice that was flawed in the firstplace.}A short walk from Miami`s Wolfsonian museum - which currently hosts the Fashioning The Modern French Interior exhibition within its own particularly satisfying environment - and there`s South Beach`s The Tides.A quality art deco statement built in 1936, the hotel holds grande damestatus on Ocean Drive. Yet this project from "master architect" Lawrence Murray Dixon only really came into its own in 1997 when it was purchased by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. It was then that its interior was substantially remodelled and 115rooms became 45 - all with that important view of the ocean andminimalist white decor. Its halls - now moved from the centre to therear of the building - were bathed in natural light: perhaps not a bigdeal for some, but a similar version of its old layout at GloriaEstefan`s Cardozo Hotel -just a few doors down - reveals claustrophobic, dark corridors {whichare hardly enhanced by leopard-print carpets and Elastoplast pinkwalls}.The Tides has just been treated to another revamp, in fact, and thatstripped-back aesthetic of 11 years ago has been replaced by Kelly Wearstler`s21st-century tasteful, textural take on art deco which couplescontemporary metallic-flecked upholstery, natural forms and whatinterior designers like to call "vintage finds". And it`s a success. Itdoesn`t just "work", it impresses and allows the building to genuinelyjustify its status as a glamorous SoBe landmark.So while it`s still often assumed to be a ditzy discipline {mergingsupposedly unheroic pastimes like shopping, styling and decorating},great interior design can make a difference. Forget thosederided home makeover shows for a minute and instead consider what LeCorbusier`s projects might have been like without the internal input ofCharlotte Perriand. Bereft of a similarly stirring interior, architecture`s beauty can be just skin deep.
blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/05/architecture.html