Interior Design and Decoration

Why study this course?

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.

More about this course

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

Through the design projects of Year 1 and the studios of Years 2 and 3 you will investigate private, community, commercial and sustainable interior environments, you will consider the spatial and material relationships within a building envelope of surface, 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 our 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 students and experts across a range of related disciplines, including furniture, upholstery, textiles and metals. You'll utilise a breadth of material techniques with traditional and digital workshop processes.

Historically, decorative designers have expressed through their work the latest advances in fashion and technology, in step with vogues and trends that colour our material culture and vernacular history.

Important archives are kept with institutions such as the V&A, Geffrye Museum and Royal Institute of British Architects (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 developing designers you will use this knowledge to develop sensory and aesthetically sophisticated decorative environments that communicate emotionally, culturally, socially and physically with your audience.

Throughout the course you will be asked to consider and position yourself, your skills and your 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 students to explore the fundamental aspects of design for interiors, through the lens of the built environment, the client, and/or decoration and detailing.

What our students say

"An engaging course and projects that are highly competitive. Great links to people in the industry up-to-date information about the architecture and design world, and great projects led by real clients."

"Flexible, independent and intellectually stimulating."

"...tutors always help with any difficulties you might have... you have the opportunity to meet wonderful people, a friendly environment and much more..."

"Teachers are very helpful and always there for you, you feel very welcome and there's a very friendly atmosphere."

"The course was excellent."

National Student Survey