Contemporary cityscapes vary greatly from their early precedents, hosting urban life in sprawling interior spaces like mega-hotels, shopping malls, and transportation hubs. Soaring atriums and expansive concourses are now a normal part of the urban experience, allowing for public activity 'inside' the city. Interiors and urbanism are often considered at far ends of the spatial spectrum, with architecture serving as a mediator between the two. The growing significance of 'interior urbanism' in the functioning of the built environment demands the question - how can cities be reinvented from the inside out?
The phenomenon of increasing indoor urban space - termed as Interior Urbanism - depicts how urbanization extends beyond external city boundaries to influence the design and dynamics of interior spaces, particularly public interiors. The concept encompasses the notion that interior spaces, particularly public spaces, are essential elements of urban life, shaping and mirroring the changing design of cities. It can also be perceived in continuous and interconnected interior spaces in cities such as mega structures, arcades, underground pedestrian walkways, above ground link bridges and infrastructural spaces.
