Outline
What are interior, architectural and spatial design? How might we practice them? And what might these practices contribute to the diverse and worldwide societies and situations in which our graduates will live and work?
This programme is designed to support you in establishing your own approaches and answers to these questions, helping you lay the foundations for your own path through the opportunities this field of knowledge and practice presents.
In this programme, you will complete design projects that range from the design and construction of details through which we physically engage with buildings, to the master planning of their relationships with the cities that surround them.
At the same time, you will use media including writing, drawing, digital modelling and physical exhibition to engage with the theoretical, historical, and cultural contexts that frame the practices of interior, architectural and spatial design.
You will also engage with the rich possibilities for learning presented by elective courses on offer throughout the University of Edinburgh including languages, crafts, business, history, theory and more.
Staff use their research to inform teaching and each year we work together to unlock the creative possibilities presented by a particular site, situation or institution in the city of Edinburgh, be it a local community, a historic building, or a changing organisation.
In joining this programme you will also be joining Interior Lab – the wider family of staff and students involved in the programme - including professional alumni, undergraduate interior design and PhD students who will join us for talks, exhibitions and other events.
Programme structure
This programme runs over three consecutive semesters and is full time. The programme is composed of core and elective courses.
Semesters 1 and 2 are split into 3 courses of 20 Credits each, covering design practice and theoretical studies in the field of design. The summer semester consists of a single 60 credit course.
Semester 1
In Semester 1, there are two core courses:
- Adapting Interiors
- Reading Interiors
Both are taught by IASD staff and focus on a chosen site, situation, or institution.
The remaining 20 credit course is elective, which you will choose from a selected list of courses with a more theoretical and written focus. These are delivered by other colleagues in ECA.
Semester 2
In Semester 2, the two core courses are:
- Connecting Interiors (taught by IASD staff and focusing on the chosen site)
- Disseminating Design Practices (delivered by other colleagues in ECA)
The third course in this semester is elective. You are encouraged to choose a course that will develop your design thinking beyond interiors to gain valuable experience in a related field.
You may take suitable elective courses from anywhere within the University. Options vary each year and are dependent on level, availability and timetable suitability.
Summer semester
The final summer semester consists of a single core course, Intersections, which contains three elements:
- An individual ‘synthesis’ design research project, based in our site/situation/institution, but following a project brief of your own choice.
- A group project in which you work together as a team disseminating the approaches and work of the programme to the broader public beyond ECA.
A portfolio in which you document your learning throughout the year and propose the future directions of your practice.
Teaching
Our core teaching and learning is based in our studio, which is a collaborative working space for staff and students.
Working with our experienced staff, we expect you to take charge of the direction of your coursework as a postgraduate student. We are here to guide and advise you on developing your own practices and thinking in new directions, rather than instructing you in preconceived ideas and practices.
While much of your work is self-directed, your weekly core classes will involve engagement with your peers and academic staff. In these classes, you will encounter:
- lectures and seminars
- group and individual design tutorials
- workshop activities
- intensive design ‘lock-ins’.
In our core courses you will explore the potential of our host institution and/or situation through design projects set at different scales, from detail to masterplan. In each, you will follow a structured process that will introduce you to practices and processes from building survey to construction drawing, urban and community, to structural analysis.
In the final third semester you will pursue design projects of your own with greater autonomy, building on the approaches you have learned in earlier semesters, and turning these approaches to your own career aims and objectives.
Assessment
We have designed our core assessments to reflect and reward a continuous and student-centred model of creative learning. To complete each core course you will produce a portfolio of work summarising and reflecting on your learning journey, as well as the resolution of completed design work.
Along the way, you will produce specific pieces of work for interim review, including drawings, physical models, short pieces of writing, digital animations, and temporary installations.
