MA in Interior Design

In this year-long course, students are first provided with the cultural and technical tools needed to understand inhabited spaces. Exemplary existing projects (published projects or on location in Paris) are analyzed for space elements such as: urban context, masses, negative and positive spaces, lighting, furniture functions, interior decoration, textures, color schemes. Students work on short projects to demonstrate their progressive ability to generate design solutions, select images, color and finishes, consider building-code constraints and barrier-free design.

In the first semester of this year-long course the focus is on business and management, shifting to communication in the second semester. Using the team project as an application, students consider professional feasibility of an idea: estimation of timeframes of each part within the whole project, measurements, budget comparisons, contract and construction costs, construction team management, and professional ethics. In the second semester, students apply the technical proficiency they have acquired in the fall CAD course to perfect their mastery of digital and hand drawing and sketching to visualize and communicate interior design projects. Students develop and explore new concepts, methods, and ideas to visually illustrate and present the various phases of the design process: concept boards, fast scale models, graphics and materials samples. 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.

The course will analyze and compare 20th and 21st century architectures and interiors in Japan, Scandinavia, North America, South America, and the Mediterranean. Students will work towards situating design and architecture practices within larger intellectual and historical frameworks by exploring the indissoluble connections linking ideas and products of human culture. Students will acquire the critical methodologies applicable to design and architecture to think more systematically about the evolution of architecture and interiors over time.

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.

The main aim of this class is to provide students with the tools and techniques required to document their work in a professional manner in order to share it with prospective clients. Students in several graduate programs will need to be proficient in photographing objects and/or interiors. Photographing still life is different from portraiture or street photography, and requires mastery of lighting and mise en scène.

You may select an elective from the elective options bellow.

In this year-long course, students are first provided with the cultural and technical tools needed to understand inhabited spaces. Exemplary existing projects (published projects or on location in Paris) are analyzed for space elements such as: urban context, masses, negative and positive spaces, lighting, furniture functions, interior decoration, textures, color schemes. Students work on short projects to demonstrate their progressive ability to generate design solutions, select images, color and finishes, consider building-code constraints and barrier-free design.

In the first semester of this year-long course the focus is on business and management, shifting to communication in the second semester. Using the team project as an application, students consider professional feasibility of an idea: estimation of timeframes of each part within the whole project, measurements, budget comparisons, contract and construction costs, construction team management, and professional ethics. In the second semester, students apply the technical proficiency they have acquired in the fall CAD course to perfect their mastery of digital and hand drawing and sketching to visualize and communicate interior design projects. Students develop and explore new concepts, methods, and ideas to visually illustrate and present the various phases of the design process: concept boards, fast scale models, graphics and materials samples. Oral presentation skills to accompany their visual communication are the focus of continuous feedback for improvement.

A semester-long project will be conducted individually to give students the opportunity to apply all the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge gathered during the first semester to either a residential or a commercial space. The project will be accompanied by a written thesis summarizing the research (historical, social, contextual and technical) in which the project is grounded and comprising a budget and timeline. This is a two-credit course because the majority of the work is done by students outside direct classroom instruction time. Students meet with their instructor for 2 hours per week to review progress, receive feedback and technical and 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 outside professionals are also part of the jury that sets the grade.

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.

Students will document the research they conduct on the theme of their final project, as well as the research they have done on the cost and means of production of their project. Some of the criteria for evaluating the thesis will be the extent to which the student’s work is situated in a historic and cultural context, the quality of the student’s research, and the appropriate use of documentation, artifacts, and the learning resources available to them in Paris.

You may select an elective from the elective options bellow.