Interiors Architecture and Design MA

Explore: Scale and Place is an introductory postgraduate module that will challenge you to define and advance aspirations and set personal and professional goals. It is an explorative opportunity to evolve your individual design interests and a personal ethos following previous study or practice.

You will be encouraged to explore, through site analysis and detection, the interiority of the city at a scale of street, building and room; from the intimacy of objects and furniture to the wider urban context in order to start questioning what constitutes the interior, and how its resulting design affects human perception, emotion and experience. While the focus of study will be local, in London, the perspective will be global and from multi-cultural view-points, reflecting the international diversity of the student cohort.

You will examine key critical and disciplinary debates in contemporary creative and cultural practice and theory relative to Interiors, Architecture and Design at an advanced level. The module aims to foster interdisciplinary conversations based upon shared concerns, encouraging and promoting a reflective approach to masters’ level design practice and research.

You will develop individual design thinking through advanced innovative techniques that capture the design process as both methodology and an instrument of critical examination. The module aims to develop learning and research knowledge gained from the first two modules and encourages each student to evolve a distinct design language to apply to their chosen area of study.

You’ll develop an advanced personal approach to reflective and critical practice through the creation of a Design Development Journal that defines the relationship between your independently identified place of study, the context of investigation and its relevant users or occupants.

You will examine a diverse range of advanced approaches to research in Interiors, Architecture and Design. The module extends research study and thinking carried out in the Encounter: Contexts and Debate module. You will establish an advanced, articulate and coherent body of work that reflects a personal vision that is appropriate both to the discipline of interiors and the student’s chosen area of independent study.

This final module, will enable you to summarise previous discoveries made via exploration and development and present a rigorously investigated and detailed concluding proposal. The final outcome will identify and utilise research and design methodologies to promote interrelationships between theory and practice in the realisation of a major project.

The module outcome will be a single submission that communicates an independent practice proposal in detail. This will be produced as a Final Publication that will also include the collation of edited outputs from the four previous modules that identify and formulate appropriate research.

We are regularly reviewing and updating our programmes to ensure you have the best learning experience. We are taking what we've learnt during the pandemic and enhancing our teaching methods with new and innovative ways of learning.

This course is designed to put you at the centre of your learning by using a range of teaching approaches that take into account your individual interests, abilities and ambitions in interior architecture and design. The course is primarily studio and tutorial based, with some activities taking place at our campus workshops.

As part of your learning, you’ll be required to actively participate in activities and engage with your fellow students, both individually and collaboratively, working and learning as part of a small group at times. At the start of the year you will be asked to perform a pitch presentation outlining the area of research for your final project.

Lectures will facilitate discussion, support in key material or approaches, explore questions, concepts and theories, and introduce case study materials. In seminars, some of which are student-led, you will explore ideas through discussion and presentation. In group and individual tutorials you will receive feedback from tutors on work in progress and specific assignments.

Please note, lectures, seminars, presentations and tutorials will be performed via studio sessions. Occasionally some sessions will be held online.

Your timetable will be built around on campus sessions using our professional facilities, with online sessions for some activities where we know being virtual will add value. We’ll use technology to enhance all of your learning and give you access to online resources to use in your own time. Project information, recorded presentations and assessment criteria will be provided through our online Module page.

The table below gives you an idea of what learning looks like across a typical week. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on campus sessions.

Outside of these hours, you’ll be expected to do independent study where you read, listen and reflect on other learning activities. This can include preparation for future classes. In a year, you’ll typically be expected to commit 1200 hours to your course across all styles of learning. If you are taking a placement, you might have some additional hours.

Definitions of terms

Live in-person on campus learning – This will focus on active and experiential sessions that are both:

• Led by your tutors including seminars, lab sessions and demonstrations We'll schedule all of this for you
• Student-led by you and other students, like small group work and presentations.

Tutor set learning activities – This covers activities which will be set for you by your tutor, but which you will undertake in your own time. Examples of this include watching online materials, participating in an online discussion forum, completing a virtual laboratory or reading specific texts. You may be doing this by yourself of with your course mates depending on your course and assignments. Outside of these hours, you’ll also be expected to do further independent study where you’ll be expected to learn, prepare, revise and reflect in your own time.

You have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to do well on your course.

Our support services will be delivered online and on campus and you have access to a range of different resources so you can get the help you need, whether you’re studying at home or have the opportunity to come to campus.

You have access to one to one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our library and IT teams, and our network of learning experts. Our teams will also be here to offer financial advice, and personal wellbeing, mental health and disability support.

Your skills, knowledge and understanding will be entirely assessed by coursework including practical projects, oral presentations and supporting written work. There are no exams.

Formative feedback is provided during each module assignment, together with summative feedback at the end of each module.

The criteria for the final project are:

• Critical awareness of contemporary and current knowledge, practice and contexts within your chosen subject area
• In-depth understanding of how research activity has informed and framed your design decision-making
• Critical and reflective evaluation of the outcomes from your research and design activity
• Expertise in a range of technical, communication and professional skills appropriate to your chosen subject
• The development of a personal practice through the application of knowledge acquired through your research
• Advanced level work that articulates critical analysis, creative problem solving and reflective practice.