Liz Teston is a Professor of Interior Architecture, designer, and a Fulbright Scholar (Romania) and Specialist (Australia). Teston’s research explores public interiority, design politics, atmospheres, and cultures via drawing, making, and writing.
Through open-sourced creative partnerships, Teston focuses on interiorized public environments. Alongside design partners, she co-designs collective experiences that promote well-tempered urban spaces. This work has been exhibited and published globally. Two foundational ideas behind this work are 鈥減ublic interiority鈥� and 鈥渄esign as a fundamental human right.鈥� Through this, we understand that exteriors can become interiors, without buildings, through stimuli likeatmospheres, programs, politics, forms, and psychologies. These time-based experiences reveal the spatial and embodied qualities of light, color, and material.
Teston initiated and produced the Public Interiority Symposium + Exhibition at the University of Tennessee. She is the co-author and editor-in-chief of the volume (Routledge, 2024)鈥�which received the IDEC Book Award in 2025. 罢别蝉迟辞苍鈥檚 forthcoming monograph, The Field Guide to Public Interiority, has been supported by The Center for Architecture Arnold W. Brunner Grant, a UT-Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, and the Fulbright Specialist program, among others.
Teston is deeply involved in design advocacy, transcending geographic boundaries to reach both our local design community and global scholars. During her tenure as faculty advisor, students won three national Best IIDA Student Chapter Awards. Teston was also appointed to the IIDA HQ Equity Council and national IDEC Task Forces. Prior to joining UTK, Teston designed commercial interiors inAtlanta for 10 years. She holds a Master of Architecture from Georgia Tech and graduated from SCAD(BFA in ID). She is NCIDQ-certified, LEED-accredited, and a registered interior designer (TN, GA); she is a member of IIDA, ASID, IDEC, and SAH. Teston is the 2026-27 interim director for the School of Interior Architecture.
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Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design, Savannah College of Art and Design
Master of Architecture,听Georgia Institute of Technology
Expertise and Interests听
- Interior Urbanism听
- Community Engagement听
- Memory and Interiority听
- Detailing and Construction for Interiors听