Interior Design

These first project courses (P.F. 1&2) aim at providing students with the cultural and technical tools needed to understand inhabited spaces. Exemplary projects drawn from housing, workplace, leisure and retail environments are investigated. Space elements are analyzed on published architectural projects and within real locations: urban context, masses, negative and positive spaces, lighting, furniture functions. The ability to generate design solutions, select images, color and finishes are emphasized. Building codes and barrier-free design compliance are also be studied.

The course aims at introducing students to the world of materials’ sensorial qualities, requirements, and performances. Students explore the relationships between colors, light and four specific materials (glass, wood, metal and plastics) from a sensorial point of view. Through a theoretical and practical approach of materials and tool technologies, students discover possibilities and ways to apply, combine and assemble materials within interior environments. The course will also encourage critical thinking with regard to an understanding and application of the life cycle analysis, as well as introducing organizations dedicated to sustainability and the rating systems they use. Visits to materials workshops and suppliers showrooms will complement this course.

This course is intended as an introduction to the communication of interior design projects. It is meant to provide students with a basic understanding of practical skills used to describe and represent space. Through a series of tasks, students familiarize themselves with basic design tools – conceptual sketches, study models, two dimensional drawings, volumetric representations and presentation techniques – which accompany the elaboration and communication of interior design proposals.

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.

You may select an elective from the many course offerings in your department or in other departments with the approval of your department chair.

You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.

These first project courses (P.F. 1&2) aim at providing students with the cultural and technical tools needed to understand inhabited spaces. Exemplary projects drawn from housing, workplace, leisure and retail environments are investigated. Space elements are analyzed on published architectural projects and within real locations: urban context, masses, negative and positive spaces, lighting, furniture functions. The ability to generate design solutions, select images, color and finishes are emphasized. Building codes and barrier-free design compliance will also be studied.

This course aims to introduce and explore the basic components and systems that define the built environment : structure, envelope, floors, walls, roof, stairs, windows, doors, environmental systems (including plumbing, electricity, ventilation, telecommunications, lighting, etc). Over the semester, each session is to address a particular component or system in detail (from exemplary references to technical aspects to graphic representational codes). Sustainability issues and energy-saving systems will also be studied.
The course as a whole intends to provide students with a comprehensive and thorough overview of the numerous aspects and characteristics which need to be considered when developing an interior design project. Bridging with Project Fundamentals 1 & 2, the course will allow students to understand how these components and systems co-exist and interface within the built environment.

This first course in Project Communication is meant to provide students with the necessary practical skills to describe and represent space in two dimensions. The semester is dedicated to 2D technical drawing (dimensions, scale, plan, section, elevation views, and axonometric projections) by hand as well as in AutoCAD and the illustration of interior design proposals in Illustrator and Photoshop, with an understanding of their application as both powerful conceptual and presentation tools.

As an introduction to design in general, this seminar provides students with a contextual understanding of specific movements in design history. ‘Design’ has come to mean many different things. It has been defined as problem solving, communication of an idea, an aesthetic decision, but it is rarely discussed as a vital business concern, though design communicates to us and makes us desire things in order to sell something. The weekly sessions will incorporate topics ranging from avant-garde movements, technology and media, information theory, business and marketing practices, sociology, and psychology, set within a broad historical narrative.

You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.

In Project 1, students will focus on the design of permanent retail and commercial spaces, including restaurants, banks, boutiques, specialty shops and department stores. The differences in the treatment of tangible products retailing and intangible services offering will be emphasized through the exploration of content communication and the differential features that outline the character of a brand in a specific space. Design research methods and programming of client requirements are introduced, as well as techniques of diagramming space to provide proper circulation and activity relationships.

This second course in Project Communication is meant to provide students with the necessary practical skills to describe and represent space in three dimensions. The semester is dedicated to 3D technical drawings such as axonometry or perspective, as well as physical and digital 3D models, with an understanding of their application as both powerful conceptual and presentation tools.

The course aims at helping students to become aware that light is, first of all, a material, a tool to shape spaces, and thus handled and processed as such. Space lighting will be approached from the creative point of view – without it being limited to technological aspects. Students will understand the physiological and psychological aspects of lighting in interior design and will learn to define lighting project intentions in different types of spaces such as an apparel store, an art exhibition space or a restaurant.

You may select an elective from the many course offerings in your department or in other departments with the approval of your department chair.

Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.

In Project 2, students will focus on the design of temporary retail and exhibition spaces, including trade show exhibits, pop-up stores or corporate / public events. The art of display, lighting, visual and sound communication, color schemes, and materials selection to generate a complete sensory experience for the customers / visitors will be emphasized. Guest experts and suppliers will introduce professional reality in this studio course.

This course aims to establish the inherent principles of furnishing space while adopting a practical approach to the design process of furniture within a retail and commercial context.

It introduces the main categories of commercial space furnishings and the merchandising practices in stores. The role of human considerations with such approaches as physical anthropology and ergonomics related to furniture design will be studied. Students will learn how to maintain cohesiveness with brief and given context while designing the details of basic elements of custom components within interior spaces.

In this class, students perfect resources for the visualization and the communication of interior design projects, both orally and visually. 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.

You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.

You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.

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 3 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 in week 15 several faculty and at least one outside professional are also part of the jury that sets the grade.

This course addresses practical issues of project management. Emphasis is placed on understanding how to create a project plan and manage a team to meet the scope of the project, milestones and deliverables.

You may select an elective from the many course offerings in your department or in other departments with the approval of your department chair.

You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.

A semester-long project will be conducted individually. Students will have the opportunity to apply all the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge gathered during their course of studies to either a permanent or temporary space. They will have to demonstrate their understanding and capacities of caring on all aspects of retail and commercial space design – research, analysis, creative and technical solutions, communication, economics, and management. Students’ presentations will be evaluated by an external pool of practicing interior designers and architects.

Intensive workshops dedicated to the experimentation of various techniques provided for students: they will be able to choose how to present their final individual project and their print and digital portfolios for further career or education prospects.

You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.

You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.