Interior Design

In this year long course (ID studio 1 and 2), students explore and test conceptual thinking, design process and design tools required to develop proposals for inhabited spaces. Students are encouraged and expected to challenge themselves by investigating new ways of thinking and designing. In this second semester, a final brief will require students to push their designs further in terms of detail, materiality, structure and assembly. Using either the school’s 3D workshop or printing facilities, or affiliated fab lab resources, students will fabricate and assemble a large scale model or prototype of an extract of their proposal as a means to test and implement their design first-hand.

This course is meant to enable students to develop and perfect the required practical skills to describe and represent space. It is dedicated principally to 2D technical drawing (measures, plan, section, views, axonometric projections, detail and construction drawings) using CAD software programs Adobe Creative Suites, AutoCAD and SketchUP, as needed for most projects. Students will also be given the opportunity to explore 3D visualization techniques and rendering tools so as to perfect their project communication skills. PCA has a license for all its students, faculty and staff to use lynda.com, an online tutorial for all software programs required for art and design.

In this year long course, a practical approach is applied to each phase of the interior design project, from inception to completion. Working through the 4 principal stages of a scheme (feasibility and analysis; sketch proposal; detailed design; construction phase) students are led to identify, in sequence, the specific objectives, challenges and communication requirements relating to each phase. In the first semester, using the team project as an application, students consider the professional feasibility of an idea and the implications behind a sketch proposal: estimation of timeframes of each part within the whole project, measurements, budget comparisons, contract and constructions costs, clarity and coherence of a scheme with respects to client requirements and programmatic constraints. In the second semester, students follow the elaboration and perfecting of a project through the detailed design process, as well as the rigour and attention required to carry a project through to completion, addressing construction team management skills and professional ethics. Throughout the duration of the course and following each phase of the design process students are encouraged to apply the technical proficiency they have acquired in the fall CAD course to develop and explore new concepts, methods and ideas to illustrate and present each stage: concept boards, fast scale models, graphics, material samples and mock-ups. Oral presentation skills to accompany their visual communication are the focus of continuous feedback for improvement.

In the first semester, students work in teams on either a residential or a commercial space. They select an existing space in Paris and build the project on a proposed transformation of this space. This is a two-credit course because the majority of the work is done by students outside direct classroom instruction time. Students work in teams and meet with their instructor for 2 hours per week to review progress, receive feedback and technical conceptual suggestions for moving the project to completion. A peer review and critique with all student teams is organized at the end of weeks 5, 10, and 15. For the final critique after week 15 several faculty and at least one outside professional are also part of the jury that sets the grade.

For their degree project students will elaborate a detailed design proposal over the course of 2 semesters, applied to either a residential or commercial space.

The Fall semester will be dedicated to formulating a design research problematic, collecting and analyzing relevant data, carrying out in situ observations and surveys while identifying the project’s principal considerations. By the end of the semester, students will have developed a diversified knowledge of the chosen program and an in-depth understanding of the given context, be it cultural, social, historical, architectural. They will have prepared a set of comprehensive documents and drawings of the chosen site, which will enable them to undertake the detailed development of their design proposal in the Spring.

This course explores the flourishing theoretical debate around architecture and design in the Modern Era. By providing students with the knowledge and skills required to understand and analyze their built environment, we will focus on significant periods that have marked architecture in Europe in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Starting from the industrial revolution, the course will cover the prevailing theoretical movements that have characterized and formed Modern Architectural History.

By adopting Paris as a paradigmatic area of study, students will be first introduced to the redefinition of a “National Style” in 1840ies France while focusing on the interpretation of history in contemporary architectural language. We will then look into emerging artists and building forms in North America and Europe starting with the School of Chicago and moving forward with the Arts & Crafts, and Art Nouveau movements, together with the Prairie School. Students will be also introduced to the influential Avant-garde schools such as the Art Déco and Bauhaus before approaching the International Style. Although the course offers a diachronic approach of History, Architecture and interior design will be also tackled through a thematic analysis with a series of exercises (In-class activities; field trips and visual analysis) where students will assess, explore and compare built structures in our urban environment.

In this year long course (ID studio 1 and 2), students explore and test conceptual thinking, design process and design tools required to develop proposals for inhabited spaces. Students are encouraged and expected to challenge themselves by investigating new ways of thinking and designing. In this second semester, a final brief will require students to push their designs further in terms of detail, materiality, structure and assembly. Using either the school’s 3D workshop or printing facilities, or affiliated fab lab resources, students will fabricate and assemble a large scale model or prototype of an extract of their proposal as a means to test and implement their design first-hand.

In this year long course, a practical approach is applied to each phase of the interior design project, from inception to completion. Working through the 4 principal stages of a scheme (feasibility and analysis; sketch proposal; detailed design; construction phase) students are led to identify, in sequence, the specific objectives, challenges and communication requirements relating to each phase. In the first semester, using the team project as an application, students consider the professional feasibility of an idea and the implications behind a sketch proposal: estimation of timeframes of each part within the whole project, measurements, budget comparisons, contract and constructions costs, clarity and coherence of a scheme with respects to client requirements and programmatic constraints. In the second semester, students follow the elaboration and perfecting of a project through the detailed design process, as well as the rigour and attention required to carry a project through to completion, addressing construction team management skills and professional ethics. Throughout the duration of the course and following each phase of the design process students are encouraged to apply the technical proficiency they have acquired in the fall CAD course to develop and explore new concepts, methods and ideas to illustrate and present each stage: concept boards, fast scale models, graphics, material samples and mock-ups. Oral presentation skills to accompany their visual communication are the focus of continuous feedback for improvement.

For their degree project, students will elaborate a detailed design proposal over the course of 2 semesters, applied to a chosen interior typology.

The Spring semester will build upon the extensive research undertaken in the Fall, a diversified knowledge of the specific program and an in-depth understanding of the given context. Basing themselves on the set of comprehensive documents and drawings of the chosen site they will have prepared, students will develop a detailed design project summarizing all of the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge acquired over the year. Emphasis will be on the relevance of the design problematic, the depth of research and creative initiative, and the quality of the visual and written proposal.

Professionals from the Parisian art and design world will come in to introduce students to their professional practice and engage them in practical exercises preparing them for the job market. Instructors will be drawn from a broad range of fields: photographers and videographers; designer and architects; galleries, museums, auction houses and private collections; art fairs and international exhibitions; art dealers; curators; historians; journalists and iconographers; artists; magazine editors; I.P. and licensing lawyers, etc. This class brings together students from all the graduate programs.

This course consists of intensive workshops dedicated to the experimentation of various techniques allowing students to choose how to present their degree project, as well as to develop their printed and digital portfolios for further career or education prospects.

You may select electives from the course offerings below.