Interior Design

These first project courses (P.F. 1&2) aim to establish the inherent principles that structure space from a sensorial and a practical point of view. The course will provide students with the cultural and technical tools needed to understand inhabited spaces. Exemplary projects drawn from housing, workplace, leisure and retail environments are investigated, while addressing building codes and conventions. Students will learn how to elaborate and develop clear ideas and conceptual principles, while considering urban context, space organization, negative and positive spaces, lighting and furniture functions. The ability to generate design solutions, select materials, color and finishes are emphasized.

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 to establish the inherent principles that structure space from a sensorial and a practical point of view. The course will provide students with the cultural and technical tools needed to understand inhabited spaces. Exemplary projects drawn from housing, workplace, leisure and retail environments are investigated, while addressing building codes and conventions. Students will learn how to elaborate and develop clear ideas and conceptual principles, while considering urban context, space organization, negative and positive spaces, lighting and furniture functions. The ability to generate design solutions, select materials, color and finishes are emphasized.

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, alternative methods and ideas to visually illustrate and present the various phases of the design process: from concept boards, fast scale models and graphics to rendering techniques and digital fabrication tools.

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 this advanced studio course, students work on a shared design brief, set within an existing space in Paris. Addressing  new forms of design interventions, mixed-use or hybrid programs, students are encouraged to develop a personal and creative approach. Following focused and specialised investigations, the emphasis is on experimentation and innovation. Each student is invited to identify a particular and unique angle when responding to the brief and given context, by determining how they wish to approach critical design issues, such as working with sustainable materials, defining a socially engaged proposal, revisiting the process of fabrication and assembly or exploring new ways of inhabiting existing structures with either permanent or temporary design solutions.  Students are encouraged to develop a strong agenda as confident designers, while elaborating a personal architectural language, preparing them for the challenges of their degree project which they will complete over the following semester.

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

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 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.

This seminar provides the theoretical and methodological foundation necessary for completing a senior thesis in the departments of Fine Arts, Photography, Communication Design, Interior Design and Design Management. Over the course of the semester, students will continue to conduct research and write their thesis for the Bachelor degree. The Senior Thesis course includes individual and group tutorials, peer assessments, and research and writing workshops. This course is intended to guide students through the final stages of the thesis (from finalizing the written submission to preparing the oral defence) and it seeks to make the thesis process and oral defence as painless (and, ideally, as enjoyable) as possible.

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

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.

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.

Following on from Senior year, students undertake a 6 month internship over the Summer and Fall semester in an interior design or architecture agency. Within the practice, students are to actively participate in set tasks, following a structured program of work while actively contributing to the organization. The Chair of the Interior Design department meets with the student 3 to 4 times over the duration of the internship to review progress.

Before the BFA degree can be conferred, students must compile a 15-20 page written report and a digital portfolio/presentation describing their involvement in the agency, analyzing what lessons they have learned and evaluating to what extent they have acquired essential skills related to their profession.