Interior Design MA (PGCert PGDip)

How this course is delivered

We've made some changes to the way our courses are taught to keep everyone safe, connected and involved in university life.

At the moment, students have a blend of on-campus and digitally enabled remote learning that provides lots of opportunities to interact and engage with lecturers and other students.

Why study with us?

• International links and overseas teaching, with workshops taking place in Milan, Istanbul and Beijing in recent years

• Featured university in the book Masterclass: Interior Design, a guide to the world's leading graduate schools

• Dual emphasis on creative and critical enquiry in the broad context of the visual and performing arts, design and the humanities

• Interdisciplinary workshops that encourage you to think across a range of design fields including architecture, urban design, fashion and textiles

• A creative, technical and theoretical approach that helps you to become a professional leader in the field of interior design

A selection of work by Interior Design MA students for their Design Museum project

Course structure

During semester 1, the projects set for the Preliminary Design module provide an opportunity for students returning to education to take stock of their position, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and identify ambitions for future study. Lecture courses in Technology and Material Practices, Critical Readings and Research Methods run in parallel.

In semester 2, you consolidate and extend the priorities, ideas and strategies established in the preliminary design. Lecture series in Technology and Critical Readings continue. A proposal for the final research project is developed and submitted, which then takes up the whole of semester 3.

The course explores both the intellectual idea and the spatial language of interior environments. Students develop new skills while extending existing design practices to precisely articulate spatial design proposals.

We offer at least one study trip each year. It might be related to the design studio or a trip that offers you direct exposure to and experience of some of the most contemporary spatial design projects in Britain and mainland Europe.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Syllabus

Our Interior Design MA is designed to promote interdisciplinary research and practice: we are looking to develop creative collaborations between fine artists, designers, architects and thinkers. Our starting point is to acknowledge the complexities and paradoxes inherent in orthodox architectural documentation in order to unearth the dubious simplifications and missed opportunities that result from the tendency to privilege the visual at the expense of our other senses.

In anticipation of 'the creative user', all our proposals originate from a close focus on the existing condition, paying particular attention to local takeovers, autonomous occupations and the blurring of boundaries of ownership and programme. In considering issues of technology, we are concerned as much with intuition, desire and chance as with precedent, economy and established practice.

Preliminary Design

During semester 1, the projects set for the Preliminary Design module provide an opportunity for students returning to education to take stock of their position, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and identify ambitions for future study. Lecture courses in technology and the chosen optional module run in parallel.

Technology and Material Practices

The central concern of the work undertaken in this module is to investigate the ways in which a building’s materiality, systems of construction and service infrastructure provide an opportunity to bring into sharp focus the polemical, ethical and philosophical positions that underpin the project as a whole. The module consists of a series of lectures and workshops focusing on visual, thermal, aural, climatic, structural, constructional and sustainability issues.

Option Module

During semester 1, you select the module of your choice from a list of options offered by the full range of MA courses across the School of Art, Design and Media.

Main Design

By semester 2, work undertaken for the Main Design module consolidates and extends the priorities, ideas and strategies established in Preliminary Design (talks and tutorials on Technology and Material Practices continue to run parallel with the studio project).

Research Methods

Throughout this module, you develop your research skills to construct research questions, hypotheses and methodologies, which you will adapt to issues of personal interest. You also develop and submit a research project proposal.

Masterwork

The Masterwork is the culmination of the course and may be undertaken through creative design practice supported by critical text or as a text-based thesis. The development of the Masterwork proposal is supported by research-based seminars and regular seminar presentations with supervisory input from your course tutors.

Modules

• Preliminary Design
• Technology and Material Practices
• Optional Module
• Main Design
• Research Methods
• Masterwork

Victoria Willis

Zahra Hasani

Facilities

• Benefit from the new Masters Centre including studio space, tutorial areas and shared creative spaces

• Modelling and construction workshops: timber and metal, dedicated 'wet' modelling bay, plastic dying facility, drill press, spray booth, vacuum former, strip bender, plastics oven, hot wire cutter and spot welder; further workshops available by arrangement with rapid prototyping and laser cutter

• IT facilities include 3D paper and printer, plotters, scanners and a reprographics suite

• Software includes Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat Professional), VW2010, Cinema 4D, Premiere, Blender, AutoCAD, Maya and Rhino

• Library facilities include additional computing equipment, digital and hard copy specialist library facilities, and specialist collections

Staff profile

Frank O'Sullivan

Frank O'Sullivan began his teaching career at Kingston University, subsequently running a postgraduate design studio. In conjunction with the PGDip studio at Kingston, he set up and became co-director of One Off Constructions, an architectural design and construction company.

O'Sullivan is now the course leader for our Interior Design MA, where he supervises studio work and research projects. He is also assistant head of school and a visiting professor in Milan.

Over the past two years, O'Sullivan has helped to develop links and exchanges with design departments at two universities in China: Beijing University and Tsing Hua University. Work with these establishments has included lectures, studio teaching, student seminars and discussions about possible future projects.

Student views

Annalisa Meli

“This course is really valuable if you want to become a designer, but it is important to be aware that it is really hard work. There are lots of deadlines and presentations – but these are useful, because they help you to be productive and to develop your projects.”

Victoria Willis

“Our studio-based design module with Frank O’Sullivan and Ersi Ioannidou was inspirational. Challenging us to the maximum in every tutorial, we were encouraged to think for ourselves and push our ideas to their limits.”

Raja Imran

"My favourite hang outs? For food – Kanok Thai, Black Bird, Cocoa, The Bali Brasserie. For entertainment – Komedia is great for gigs and movies. The Lanes for Brighton's best vintage goods. Seven Sisters and Devil's Dyke for calming the mind with breathtaking nature."

Victora Willis

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Portfolio advice

Your portfolio should be a maximum of 20 pages/images showing examples of projects from previous or ongoing academic studies. It should also include recent work undertaken in practice as appropriate.

Remember – it's useful for the course leader to see the range of representational skills you have as well as your approach to design.

Please upload your portfolio to an image-sharing website such as Flickr or Dropbox, and include the link in your application.

Course fees

Please note these are the annual fees for the course. As the course duration is 18 months (full-time), you will pay a further 50% of the above figure for the final six months.

Perkins+Will Thesis Prize for Architecture

The £250 Perkins+Will Thesis Prize for Architecture is open to final-year students of the Interior Architecture BA(Hons) and the Interior Design MA. It rewards work that exhibits strong design principles and that shows concern for sustainability, social responsibility, diversity, wellness and innovation.

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies, although we have tried to keep this to a minimum. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included, whilst studying a course in the School of Architecture and Design are listed below:

• In your first year of studies, you will need to buy a drawing and modelling toolkit. Each course will suggest a list of items of which some will be essential, and others optional. You should budget around £100–£250 for these.
• For most courses you will need to budget between £100 to £300 per year for printing and portfolio costs. Costs will vary depending on type of printer and type and size of paper used. Some students tend to work digitally, spending more on printing and some by hand, spending more on materials so these costs vary widely between students.
• Most essay and report submissions can be made online however, you should budget around £25 for printing and binding dissertations in your final year.
• For most courses you will need to budget between £10 and £100 for material costs per design project. Costs will vary depending on how and what you use to make models. You are encouraged to recycle used materials where possible.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget from £15 to £100 per year to buy your own copies and subscribe to design magazines.
• You will have access to computers and necessary software, however many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses. Find out what free software is available from the university.
• You will need to budget between £5–£50 to exhibit work for the end-of-year show. Fundraising by the student society, BIAAS, normally helps towards this cost.
• Most courses include mandatory site visits and travel expenses are included in the fees.
• There will be opportunities to attend additional study trips throughout the course but these are not required to pass your course. The cost of travel to them will be covered by the course but there may be additional costs varying from a packed lunch to entrance to a museum.
• International field trips are offered in each year which are optional and are not required to pass your course. You should expect to budget approximately £150–£350 for these, to cover flight, accommodation, food and entrance to museums. The total amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2021–22.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

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