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Headshot of Professor Lois Weinthal

Lois Weinthal

Professor | Graduate Program Director
EducationMArch, BArch
Memberships/ServicesARIDO, IDC, IDEC, NCIDQ 10296

Lois Weinthal’s practice investigates the relationship between architecture, interiors, clothing and objects, resulting in works that take on an experimental nature. Her teaching explores these topics where theoretical discussions in seminars are put into practice in design studios. Her seminar teaching led to the publication, Toward a New Interior: An Anthology of Interior Design Theory (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), which organizes the interior as a series of layers that wrap the body, spanning perception to thresholds between interior and exterior. This anthology won the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Book Award in 2014. Additional publications include co-editor of After Taste: Expanded Practice in Interior Design with Kent Kleinman and Joanna Merwood-Salisbury (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), co-editor with Graeme Brooker on The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design (Bloomsbury, 2013), and co-editor with Jonathon Anderson on Digital Fabrication and Interior Design: Body, Object, Enclosure (Routledge, 2022). She is co-editor of the journal, Interiors: Design/Architecture/Culture. She has received grants from SSHRC, Graham Foundation, Fulbright, and DAAD. Recent SSHRC grants supported symposia on Interior Design and Digital Fabrication, and Healthy Interior Design – lessons learned from a pandemic (external link) . Her writing and creative work has received awards from ACSA and IDEC.  She is the Graduate Program Director for the Master of Interior Design program, and was previously Chair of the School of Interior Design at Toronto Metropolitan University.  Previous positions held include Director of the Interior Design Program at Parsons The New School for Design, Graduate Advisor for the Master of Interior Design Program in the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin, Honorary Professor at the Glasgow School of Art, and Visiting Professor at Middlesex University. She received her Master of Architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design.

  • Interior Design Theory
  • Plaster of Paris
  • Casting and Mold Making
  • Healthy Interior Design

Selected Publications and Exhibitions

Books

  • Anderson, Jonathan, and Lois Weinthal, eds. Digital Fabrication in Interior Design: Body, Object, Enclosure. New York, NY: Routledge, 2022.
  • Brooker, Graeme, and Lois Weinthal, eds. The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2018.
  • Kleinman, Kent, Joanna Merwood-Salisbury, and Lois Weinthal, eds. After Taste: Expanded Practice in Interior Design. New York, N.Y: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.
  • Weinthal, Lois. Toward a New Interior: An Anthology of Interior Design Theory. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011.

Book Chapters

  • Weinthal, Lois, Patrick Macklin, Wen Liang and Alice Huang. “Interior Archipelago - Postcards from Our Islands”. In Interiors in the era of COVID-19. Edited by Ersi Ioannidou, Pat Kirkham, and Jana Scholze, 247-58. London: Bloomsbury Press, 2023.
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Interior Atmosphere.” In A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945. Edited by Anne Massey, 157–72. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2019.
  • Weinthal, Lois. “A Pirouette on the Orthographic Hinge.” In The Interior Architecture Theory Reader. Edited by Gregory Marinic, 215–23. London: Routledge, 2018.
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Foreword”. In Interiors Beyond Architecture. Edited by Amy Campos and Deborah Schneiderman, viii-xii. London: Routledge, 2018.
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Drawing the Dotted Line.” In The Routledge Companion to Design Studies. Edited by Penny Sparke and Fiona Fisher, 79–88. London: Routledge, 2016.
  • Weinthal, Lois. “The Interior’s Second Skin”. In Textile Technology and Design: From Interior Space to Outer Space. Edited by Deborah Schneiderman and Alexa Griffith Winton, 45-56.  London: Bloomsbury Publishers, 2015.
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Interior-Scapes”. In Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture. Edited by Lori A. Brown, 139–54. London: Routledge, 2011.
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Berlin: A Renovation of Postcards”. In Installations by Architects: Experiments in Building and Design. Edited by Sarah Bonnemaison and Ronit Eisenbach. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009.

Journal Publications

  • Weinthal, Lois. “The Interior Within Hand’s Reach: Tactile Proximity.” Architectural Design, 93, no. 3 (2023): 96–103. 
  • Weinthal, Lois. “First Impressions.” Interiors: Design/Architecture/Culture, no. 3 (2014): 277–95. 
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Mapping Interior Adjacencies.” IDEA (Australia), no. 1 (2010): 62–63. 
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Bridging the Threshold of Interior and Landscape: An Interview with Petra Blaisse.” Architectural Design, 78, no. 3 (2008): 64–71. 
  • Weinthal, Lois. “House Lab: The House as Instigator of Full-Scale Constructions.” Journal of Architectural Education, 60, no. 2 (2006): 25–28. 
  • Weinthal, Lois. “Corners and Darts.” Thresholds (Cambridge, Mass.), no. 22 (2001): 84–89.

Exhibitions

  • Interior Archipelago: Postcards from Our Islands, Lois Weinthal, Patrick Macklin, Wen Liang, and Alice Huang. Exhibitions at: Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, 2021; Beijing Science Week, Art and Science Concept Exhibition, 2021.
  • Home-made, Lois Weinthal and Andrew Furman. Gladstone Hotel, Design TO, Toronto, Canada, 2017.
  • Remembering the Caribbean, Evan Jerry and Lois Weinthal. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Casa Loma Stables, Toronto, Canada, 2015.
  • Berlin: A Renovation of Postcards, Lois Weinthal. Deutsches Haus, New York University, USA, 2007.
  • Berlin: A Renovation of Postcards, Lois Weinthal. Friedrichstrasse U6 Bahnhof, organized with BVG, Berlin, Germany, 2004. 
  • 22 To Watch: New Art in Austin, Group exhibition. Austin Museum of Art (AMOA), Austin, USA, 2002.