•  
  •  
 

Abstract

This article examines how interior spaces in the digital age have evolved into flexible, adaptive environments shaped by technological mediation and shifting everyday practices. Focusing on smart homes and home offices, this article introduces the concept of flex-spatiality to describe how these spaces continually reconfigure in response to changes in needs and digital interfaces. Grounded in Gregory Bateson’s (1972) theory of play and fantasy, the study explores how interior spatiality operates on two levels: as a locus for expressing identities and as a structure for organising social interaction. Through Bateson’s distinction between metalinguistic and metacommunicative functions, flex-spatiality is framed as a dynamic process where spaces both reflect and shape relational life in recursive ways. A central concern is the challenge of obsolescence, as accelerated technological change limits the long-term adaptability of interior spaces. Such a challenge produces tensions that affect spatial use, social relations, and everyday rhythms. Adopting a post-disciplinary perspective that bridges anthropology, habitat, and spatial theory, the article refers to fantasy as a generative force for reimagining how we inhabit and make sense of interior settings. Ultimately, flex-spatiality provides a framework for understanding interior spaces as active participants in the ongoing negotiation of identities, interactions, and social transformations.

Publication Date

7-31-2025

References

Agwu, P. A., Ajimase, A. A., Adie, E. U., & Acha, J. O. (2025). Decrypting interiority of Albert Camus' the stranger through absurdist architectural symbolism. Interiority, 8(1), 125–148. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v8i1.1110

Anders, G. (1980). The obsolescence of man (Vol. 2).

Aslaksen, E. W. (2018). Technology, society, and survival. In A. Fritzsche & S. J. Oks (Eds.), The future of engineering: Philosophical foundations,ethical problems and application cases (pp. 177–190). Springer.

Baraka, K. (2024). Digital divide and social inequality. International Journal of Humanity and Social Sciences, 3(3), 30–45. https://doi.org/10.47941/ijhss.2083

Bateson, G. (1958). Naven: A survey of the problems suggested by a composite picture of the culture of a New Guinea tribe drawn from three points of view (2nd ed.). Stanford University Press.

Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind: Collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. Jason Aronson. https://ejcj.orfaleacenter.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/1972.-Gregory-Bateson-Steps-to-an-Ecology-of-Mind.pdf

Boccagni, P., & Brighenti, A. M. (2017). Immigrants and home in the making: Thresholds of domesticity, commonality and publicness. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 32, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-015-9487-9

Bourdieu, P. (1980). L'identité et la representation [identity and representation]. Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 35, 63–72. https://doi.org/10.3406/arss.1980.2100

Brighenti, A. M., & Kärrholm, M. (2018). Beyond rhythmanalysis: Towards a territoriology of rhythms and melodies in everyday spatial activities. City, Territory and Architecture, 5(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40410-018-0080-x

Canepa, S. (2017). Living in a flexible space. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 245(5), Article 052006. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/245/5/052006

Chick, A., & Micklethwaite, P. (2011). Design for sustainable change: How design and designers can drive the sustainability agenda. AVA Publishing.

Coquand, T. (2022). Type theory. In E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/type-theory/ (Original work published 2006)

Cruz, M. (2024). Las polémicas de la relación espacio social y su influencia en la forma urbana en ciudades contemporáneas [The controversies of the social-spatial relationship and its influence on urban form in contemporary cities]. Espacialidades. Revista de Temas Contemporáneos Sobre Lugares, Política y Cultura, 13(2), 20–30.

Derrida, J. (Ed.). (2007). Writing and difference. (Original work published 1967)

Dickinson, G., & Aiello, G. (2016). Being through there matters: Materiality, bodies, and movement in urban communication research. International Journal of Communication, 10, 1294–1308. https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94209/

Frenkel, A., Nijkamp, P., & McCann, P. (Eds.). (2012). Societies in motion: Innovation, migration and regional transformation. Edward Egar Publishing. https://econpapers.repec.org/bookchap/elgeebook/14707.htm

Gabriel, S., Green, M. C., Naidu, E., & Paravati, E. (2022). Using imaginary worlds for real social benefits. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45, Article e283. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X21002181

Gorodeisky, K. (2021). The authority of pleasure. Noûs, 55(1), 199–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.12310

Han, B.-C. (2022). Infocracy: Digitalization and the crisis of democracy (D. Steuer, Trans.). Polity Press.

Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1984). The social logic of space. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597237

Hillier, B., & Netto, V. M. (2002). Society seen through the prism of space: Outline of a theory of society and space. Urban Design International, 7(3), 181–203. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.udi.9000077

Hussey, G. (2023). The spatialisation of the political imagination: A political discourse analysis of space, fantasy and inter-communal conflict inDerry city. Critical Discourse Studies, 20(6), 602–617. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2022.2097934

Kellerman, A. (Ed.). (2019). The internet city. People, companies, systems and vehicles. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Lefebvre, H. (1978). Introduction à la psycho-sociologie de la vie quotidienne. In Du rural à l'urbain [From the rural to the urban] (pp. 90–107). Editions Anthropos. https://archive.org/details/dururallurbain0000lefe/page/106/mode/2up?view=theater

Lévi-Strauss, C. (1963). Structural anthropology. Basic Books 325598.

Lorente, S. (2004). Key issues regarding Domotic applications. International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies, 121–122. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTTA.2004.1307644

Magritte, R. (1920). Landscape [Painting]. WikiArt. https://www.wikiart.org/es/rene-magritte/landscape-1920

Mejía Amézquita, V. (2017). La casa en-carnada: Entre el cuerpo expandido y el cuerpo expuesto [The em-bodied house: Between the expanded body and the body exposed]. Cuadernos de Vivienda y Urbanismo, 10(19), 130–141. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.cvu10-19.cece

Mellal, M. A. (2020). Obsolescence – A review of the literature. Technology in Society, 63, Article 101347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101347

Miranda Correa, M. (2020). Mapping landscapes of movements: Representing Indigenous space signification. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 16(2), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/1177180120917485

Rancière, J. (2000). La partage du sensible: Esthétique et politique [The politics of aesthetics: The distribution of the sensible]. La Fabrique Éditions.

Reichenbach, H. (Ed.). (1958). The philosophy of space & time (M. Reichenbach & J. Freund, Trans., pp. 14–19). Dover Publications. https://archive.org/details/spacetime0000unse/page/n3/mode/2up?view=theater (Original work publsihed 1928)

Rydzewski, P. (2025). Digital inequality and sustainable development. Problemy Ekorozwoju: Problems of Sustainable Development, 20(1), 96–108. https://doi.org/10.35784/preko.6691

Salguero Mejía, C., & Gómez Alzate, A. (2023). Metaterritorio para la restitución simbólica de la memoria habitada desde el diseño [Metaterritory for the symbolic restitution of inhabited memory from design]. Kepes, 20(27), 429–461. https://doi.org/10.17151/kepes.2023.20.27.15

Slade, G. (2007). Made to break: Technology and obsolescence in America. Harvard University Press.

Trotzke, A., Balla, A., Grobauer, H., & Wittenberg, E. (2025). Asking for help: An empirical exploration into social grammar. PLOS One, 20(6), Article e0325598. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0325598

Sree Vignesh, C., Jeevan, C. K., Kishore, E. & Bhaskaran, M. (2023). Smart home automation: Design thinking approach. International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR), 5(6), 1–8. https://doi.org/gs8dfs

Waisbord, S. (2019). Communication: A post-discipline. John Wiley & Sons.

Wigley, M. (1995). The deconstruction of space. In D. F. Schnitman & J. Schnitman (Eds.), New paradigms, culture and subjectivity (pp. 173–190). Hampton Press.

Submitted Date

2025-02-18

Accepted Date

2025-07-22

First Page

279

Last Page

296

Authors' Bio

Camilo Lozano-Rivera
clozano@ucm.edu.co
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2395-6684

Camilo Lozano-Rivera has an interdisciplinary academic background, holding degrees in Anthropology (BA) and Cognitive Psychology (MSc). He also holds a PhD in Territorial Studies and later pursued postdoctoral research in the Sustainable Development and Social Inequalities in the Andean Region (trAndeS) programme. He is an active member of several research groups and collectives, including GI Filosofía y Cultura and GI Anthropos (Colombia), GI Antropocaos (Argentina), and GI Estudios Sociourbanos–GESUR (Mexico). He has extensive experience in academic publishing, having authored research articles, books, book chapters, and translations featured in scientific journals across Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Spain. He is recognised as a peer reviewer and researcher by Minciencias, and his work explores the intersections between territoriality, cognition, and socio-environmental inequalities.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Author(s) retain the copyright of articles published in this journal, with first publication rights granted to Interiority.

Download

Share

COinS