Defense Date

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Interior Design

First Advisor

Roberto Ventura

Second Advisor

Kristin Carleton

Third Advisor

Timothy Hamnett

Fourth Advisor

Sara Reed

Abstract

Concealed interiors historically emerged from necessity in response to dominant systems around surveillance, control, and visibility. These hidden spaces carefully regulated access, cultivated intimacy, and enabled self-expression within grassroots groups and marginalized communities. Operating free from surveillance and in contrast to surrounding architectural and urban systems, these concealed spaces were not formally “interior designed”, yet they reveal how communities activate the interiors they encounter to retain agency.

Scholarship on grassroots resistance is largely examined through sociology, anthropology, psychology, or political science, with limited literature directly linking interiority, interior design, and resistance within covert spaces. This thesis addresses the gap in scholarship by highlighting how protection in hidden interior spaces enables self-expression and allows grassroots communities to flourish.

Research on historical precedents – including underground clubs, speakeasies, queer bars, and residences central to the Civil Rights Movement – reveals spatial strategies that positioned hidden interiors as quiet hubs of civic resistance: using transitional pathways to mediate between surveilled vs protected spaces, reversing power dynamics through one-way visibility, encouraging flexibility and adaptability, and celebrating expression and joy uncommon in dominant architectural contexts. Adapting these strategies, the design proposes concealed “anti-nodes” across two sites and varying scales, prioritizing small, human-scale interventions over monumental architecture to reflect the decentralized nature of grassroots movements.

Taken together, this thesis documents hidden interiors and translates their spatial logics into a design application. The spatial strategies act as tools to embed protection and honor expression within the contemporary urban fabric, reframing interior design as an active participant in civic agency.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-7-2026

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