Interior Architecture BA(Hons)

In your first year, you'll get acquainted with the principles of interior architecture and work on collaborative briefs with Interior Design students. You'll explore place, place-making and site-specific architectural responses, while examining the social and psychological aspects of creating spaces. You'll also learn how to shape spatial experiences, applying spatial concepts to design decisions. Through this, you'll evaluate, research, draw and model a space to propose a redesign based on an experientially focused brief.

Modules

Spatial Awareness

In this module, you’ll explore the relationship between body, movement, space and form. Working with lecturers from the Academy of Music & Theatre Arts, you’ll tap into the world of choreography and dance to help develop your understanding of the experience of space. 

Design Principles

In this module, you’ll explore the principles of interior decoration, commercial interiors/branded spaces and interior architecture, as well as developing your understanding of interior space from a user, client, brand and site perspective. 

Poetry of Place

You'll develop an understanding of place and place responsiveness by exploring the theory of adaptive reuse through restoration, conservation and architectural appropriation.

You, Me, Us

In this module, you'll investigate collective identities, practices and values. Examining human behaviour, you'll gain an understanding of the social, psychological and cultural factors that shape the interior condition.

In your second year, you'll learn to recognise, explain and assess the political dimensions of interior architecture as well as how to propose alternative designs based on ethical considerations. You'll enhance your knowledge of adaptive reuse and its role in the rehabilitation of existing buildings, focussing on community need and site reading. You'll also deepen your understanding of the theories and systems of colour, light, texture, materiality and acoustics.

Modules

Spatial Politics

In this module, you'll explore the impact of design activism and inclusivity on the underlying processes by which interior spaces are perceived and made.

Reinvention

You'll examine heritage buildings as cultural assets that redefine creative reuse and community engagement/regeneration. You'll be encouraged to consider the principles of interior specification, technical design and environmental concerns.

Collaboration

Working as part of a team, you'll work on 'Challenge Briefs' that reflect the sort of assignments you could expect to be working on in industry. Developing your 'soft skills', like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking and leadership, you'll sharpen your ability to work well as part of a group to produce outstanding work.

Fictional Interiors

You'll explore the possibilities and constraints of representation by considering narrative and storytelling as integral to 'imagined' interior spaces. You'll learn to articulate the differences between virtual and real interior places by experiencing AR and VR technologies.

You can choose to take an optional placement year after your second year on a three-year programme. 

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the RealWORKS employability team. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying. 

How you’ll study during your placement year 

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. 

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation. 

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

In your final year, you'll learn project planning skills and techniques and apply them to self-negotiated projects relating to your specialist interior architecture interests. Drawing on the knowledge and skills you've developed so far, you'll be challenged to design a complex interior space. You'll also gain vital professional practice skills through a University-wide future skills module and develop a graduate portfolio that's fit for industry.

Modules

Design Ambitions
In this module, you’ll reflect on your skills and ambitions helping you to define a career pathway post-university. 

Materiality

In this module, you'll explore sustainable materials and their role in the creation of extraordinary interior environments. You'll learn how to select and specify materials, and produce detailed designs for a small-scale build.

Design Insights
Through a critical report, you’ll explore a personal philosophy as a designer and develop an entrepreneurial mindset by identifying a niche in the market.  

Legible Spaces

This module acts as the final showcase for your skills and a steppingstone to future employment. You'll undertake a self-negotiated project that consolidates your personal design ethos and explores the role of legibility in design: a space that is understandable, memorable and usable from the concept through to technical resolution.