Architecture and interior design both involve designing buildings or spaces and have adopted titles to differentiate themselves from each other as professions. The relationship between these professions has attracted much critical interest in recent years. There are many tensions and misunderstandings between the two professions. This thesis will investigate the “contest” sphere of the two disciplines by raising the following comparative questions; is this tension created by professionals themselves or by social context involving the public, academic identities, political people, or the economy of a country? How do factors such as professional authorities, attitudes, and working methods under the heading of ‘Professionalism' influence the sphere of professional relationship? How does this relationship change from time to time, people to people, and place to place? Can the professions get beyond a stereotypical imbalance that situates one profession, architecture, superior and being mostly worthy for men, and the other profession, interior design, inferior and as mostly being worthy of women? How do architects and interior designers relate to one another as a different and independent profession? This proposed thesis looks for the origins of the above questions by investigating how these professions emerged to their present states.
This thesis will focus on the history of the professions, their education standards, professional organizations, and their cultures of practice, thereby leading me to attempt to develop and understand these major issues in the culture of practice-architecture and interior design.