Interior Design - BA (Hons)

London Metropolitan University

Critical and Contextual Studies 2 continues to orient and critically engage students in the history and theory of their discipline, its extent and conventions, and its broader social and material context in culture and contemporary practice. It builds on studies undertaken in Level 4 and prepares students as independent thinkers, capable of selecting an appropriate topic and producing a sustained piece of independent study in the form of a dissertation in Level 6. The module continues to situate the student within the process of constructing knowledge about their discipline, its history, context, and its professional and ethical dimension. It rehearses the analytical and discursive skills students need to become knowledgeable about the authorities, objects and methods in their field; to understand the roles, locations and responsibilities of important players whilst examining the broader ethical questions relevant to their discipline; and to become conversant with current debates across the subject area. This process may be approached from the point of view of the producer or consumer, the critic or the professional, the academic or the practitioner.

Materiality (form, colour, surface and texture) affects meaning and value in all design. This module requires your critical evaluation of subtle and implicit design details, reflecting ethical and environmental design proposals expressed through materials and construction, considering how material selection and manipulation endows the artefact and/or interior with qualities and values. Students will explore and experiment with both physical and virtual material representation, drawing on concepts and ideas originally generated within the studio. Outcomes will be developed through material and/ or constructional experimentation including scaled interventions or working models. Students will realise relevant design solutions for studio briefs, in response to specific end-users and/or sites.

As humans, we live in a continuous and ongoing relationship with the made world, where the former and the latter each inform the other. This module aims to show how understanding of the human body (its scale, proportions and movement) and awareness of sociological and physiological human behaviour are key aspects of successful design. This module will examine how humans live and work together and how the body is a site for debate, performance and politics through contemporary and historical civilizations. Close observation of the interaction between the body and its immediate environment will be at the core of this area of study. It will show how analysis of the human being, at a range of scales, is vital to relevant, safe and ethical, innovative design that responds to physical and sensory needs. Environmental observation and reflection will be documented through a range of media, analysed to support the generation of concepts and design ideas.

This module develops and applies the knowledge and skills established in DN4008 Interior Materials and Technologies, and in preparation for DN6029, Integrated Design Practice, at Level 6. The module will develop students? understanding and confidence in approaching the production of interior spaces through strategic and detailed design processes. The module focuses in detail, through a series of analytical and reflective precedents, on how different aspects of context and history, and of material, construction, services and environmental design, interact in the context of large or complex interiors and buildings. The module will provide a progressively more detailed knowledge of the interior from structure through interior organisation, to details of fixings, fittings and surfaces.

Critical and Contextual Studies (CCS) Level 6 results in an independent dissertation. It builds on two years of undergraduate study that critically engages students in the history and theory of their discipline, its extent and conventions, and its broader social and material context in culture and contemporary practice. Students undertake an enquiry into a topic of their own choice and, based on this enquiry, develop a sustained critical study in support of their practice, building on techniques and knowledge developed in previous years. This study demonstrates the students ability to thoroughly research a topic, use appropriate methods of investigation, and work in a methodical and organised way to develop a coherent argument. It affords a sophisticated instrument for interrogating, testing and presenting ideas, and encourages the student to deploy and develop a variety of skills to show how well they can conduct and present a critical investigation.

The module provides a link between the completion of their undergraduate studies and interior design practice. It establishes a students ability to integrate the key areas of their interior design knowledge within the context of their major design project and through this, their readiness for professional practice. The coursework records and responds to the process of design development and, using a range of specialist contributions, introduces a range of issues, interests and perspectives. The process is recorded, evaluated, presented and reviewed in relation to the comprehensive design project. At the end of their undergraduate studies the module aims to provide students with the means to demonstrate, through and in relation to their own design work, the extent of their understanding and evaluation of key areas of professional interior design knowledge informing a design project.

This Major Project module enables Interior Design students to prepare for independent practice in the workplace or to progress onto higher studies. It is the opportunity to synthesise their specialist knowledge and skills and effectively communicate these. In this module, they will carry out the project conceived and developed in the parallel Project Design and Development module, fully realising it in appropriate form by the end of the module. Students will exercise and display their abilities in selecting, analysing and applying knowledge, skills and understanding to a negotiated and fully researched project in order to properly understand strengths, interests and position in the field, and the potential for future professional development. Students will show that they understand the complex and changing nature of problems in the professional sector of Interior Design and can devise and apply realistic strategies for constructing, applying and managing a process designed to provide solutions.

Together with their Major Project Realisation module, this module is intended to prepare interiors students for independent practice, entry into the professional workplace, or for higher study. Through synthesis of knowledge of processes and principles, using an appropriate range of intellectual, creative and practical skills, students will research, analyse, design and develop a self-directed project. This will naturally require in-depth investigation of a site, its cultural context, human inhabitation, activity and enterprise through a well-constructed design process involving practical and digital 2D and 3D methods of exploration and communication as a significant body of creative work for public exhibition. A negotiated and approved proposal will confirm the individual project. Using creative exploration and experimentation, students will undertake research, selection, concept development, material investigation, modelling/ prototyping and visualisation. The final outcome will be produced in the course - specific Major Project Realisation modules, and will be distinctive to the course in approach, scale, communication and visualisation or making and modelling.