Interior Architecture and Design (Top-up)

Why study this course

This is a top-up version of our Interior Design and Decoration BA (Hons) degree. A top-up degree is the final year (Level 6) of an undergraduate degree course and is for those who have a foundation degree, Higher National Diploma or equivalent qualification, or those wishing to study the final year of their degree in London.

The course enables you to embrace material exploration for decorative interior environments. It will draw upon the wide range of contexts within the interiors industry, covering domestic, retail, exhibition, hotel, leisure and public spaces.

The design projects featured on this course investigate private, community, commercial and sustainable interior environments. You will consider the spatial and material relationships within surfaces, furniture, artefacts and textiles. You will develop both graphic and applied decorative making skills to enable the testing, sampling and representation of your ideas.

Using the School of Art, Architecture and Design's workshop facilities and expertise, you will work with different materials (hard and soft) and mark-making approaches to experiment and collaborate with other students and experts across a range of related disciplines (including furniture, upholstery, textiles and metals) utilising a breadth of material techniques with traditional and digital workshop processes.

In the most recent Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, 100% of all 2017 graduates from this course were in work or further study within six months.

More about this course

Historically, decorative designers have expressed through their work the latest technological and fashion advances, in line with trends that colour our material culture and vernacular history. Important archives are kept with institutions such as the V&A, Geffrye Museum and RIBA which allow us to research sources, methods and approaches for contemporary practice.

You will have the opportunity to explore and develop ideas for historic and modern contexts, acquiring knowledge of graphic skills and composition, fabrication techniques, manufacturing processes, mark-making, material exploration and practice for the intimate and private, or public scales of interior decoration. As a developing designer you will use this knowledge to develop sensory and aesthetically sophisticated decorative environments that communicate emotionally, culturally, socially and physically with you audience.

Throughout the course, you will be asked to consider and position your skills and interests in relation to the industry to develop a portfolio that expresses your individual practice. The course operates within a programme of related interior design undergraduate awards, bringing together best practice from related fields. Three cognate BA awards (Interior Architecture and Design, Interior Design, Interior Design and Decoration) enables you to explore the fundamental aspects of design for interiors, through the particular lens of the built environment, the client, and/or decoration and detailing.

Course Modules

Example modules may include:

Critical & Contextual Studies 1 (Interiors)
Design Principles for Interiors
Interior Materials and Technologies
Spatial Design Development
Critical & Contextual Studies 2 (Interiors)
Design Details
Human Scale Interior
Technologies and Production
Critical & Contextual Studies 3: Dissertation (Interiors)
Integrated Design Practice
Major Project
Realisation: Interior Architecture and Design
Project Design and Development for Interiors