We’re planning to teach through a flexible combination of online and face to face learning as we start the new academic year. If you’re thinking about starting in autumn 2020, there’s more detail on how we’ll deliver your course below, and in particular on the ‘Teaching’ tab under ‘Teaching and learning – changes for students in 2020’.
Interior design courses are rapidly growing in demand. Interior design is a vital part of our everyday environment, from office lobbies and restaurants to hotels and government buildings. Our course aims to equip you with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills you’ll need to start your career in interior design. You’ll learn all about different interior styles, what is meant by ‘placemaking’, challenge your creativity, and explore the diverse interdisciplinary nature of the subject.
In addition to the three-year full-time course, you can also choose a four-year sandwich option. This pathway incorporates a one-year professional placement recognised by a dedicated Advanced Diploma in Professional Practice: Interior Architecture & Design, which you’ll receive at graduation.
You’ll be taught by a team of highly experienced staff, who are academics and industry professionals. They’ll provide you with all the support and guidance you need to succeed in your studies. We’ll provide you with specialist technical and study facilities on campus, which is equipped to a state-of-the-art standard.
Our course is based on integrated design projects to get you thinking and working like an interior designer. You’ll be challenged to apply and demonstrate various elements of your learning. Tasks have been designed to help you develop your creativity and originality while interacting with different ideas, just like you would at work. You'll use virtual reality technology to present your ideas, becoming proficient in its use.
An interior design degree can open a lot of career doors. Past graduates have gone on to work in interior design practices, specialist studios and consultancies, advisory agencies, and commercial organisations. Some of the graduate career destinations include prestigious companies like Patterson Fenton-Jones, Fox Linton Associates Ltd, and Dalziel and Pow, to name just a few.
We ensure that every student has adequate support throughout their time with us. That’s why you’ll get matched with a Personal Tutor as well as a Student Learning Assistant and a Graduate Academic Assistant. They’ll have experience in your subject area and will be able to help whenever you need.
Help to shape and transform spaces with interior design - apply for our course today.
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Learning on the course is based on a sequence of 'integrated design projects', in which you are asked to apply and demonstrate various aspects of your learning, as well as your individual creativity and originality, to specified design tasks. Projects are supplemented by a variety of lecture, seminar and workshop sessions to provide specialist skills and knowledge. Your ideas and proposals will be tested and explored in regular tutorials and reviews, in which critical evaluation, guidance and feedback is provided, and from which you will be expected to develop and improve your work.
The curriculum focuses on seven core learning strands which are developed progressively throughout all years of the course.
Research – Cultural, historical, political and social-economic contexts and how research and analysis of these contexts informs the design process and decision making.
Process – How the design of interiors is initiated, from the inception of a design concept through the process of design development to resolution and communication of the design proposal.
Design – The highest standards in design, recognizing creative currency, innovation and design quality relative to contemporary Interior Design practice.
Making – The importance of materiality in interiors and how, and from what, interior environments are formed, fitted-out and finished in order for designs to function and be appropriately experienced with an economic, ethical and ecological conscience.
Communication – How the design of interiors is coherently communicated and represented across a range of media and techniques, from freehand drawing to advanced visualization programmes.
Practice – Professional standards and practice procedures applied to Interior Design, and how professional skills are deployed in the relationship with audiences, clients, markets, uses, consumers and participants in interior environments.
Employability – Self-evaluation and personal career development and employability opportunities within interior Design and related professions.
We’ve made sure that the skills and knowledge that you’ll gain on your course will not change during the coronavirus outbreak. If you’re applying to start this course or progressing into year one, two or three this autumn, your module information is below.
This module will introduce the historical, contextual and critical basis of art, architecture and design and its analysis and interpretation. You will explore the important role of form, materiality, colour and light in the making and experience of interior environments. You will also focus on representation and communication methods in a range of media necessary and appropriate to clearly illustrate design research, precedent and inspirational reference and new interior design proposals.
This module will introduce fundamental principles of design thinking and the design process, relative to the practice of brief-led Interior Design, through the study of fundamental elements of the interior in a series of separate, but inter-related, design projects. You will be able to explore approaches, methodologies and strategies that are appropriate to reflective design practice.
Building on prior learning in the Fundamental Contexts and Skills module, this module will allow you to interpret research as a fundamental tool in the design process and introduce research methods and tactics necessary to result in an appropriate response to the design brief. You will evaluate the importance of the historical, contextual and critical basis of art, architecture and design and its analysis and interpretation in the process of designing interiors, as well as evaluate the important role of materiality in the formation of the interior and the experience of interior environments. You will interpret representation and communication methods in a range of media necessary and appropriate to clearly illustrate design research, precedent and inspirational reference and creative proposals in response to briefing material.
Building on prior learning in the Fundamental Practice module, this module will allow you to evaluate understanding of underlying principles in design thinking and the design process to produce comprehensive and coherent design proposals for whole interiors. You will also be able to interpret approaches, methodologies and strategies that are appropriate to reflective design practice.
Building on prior learning in Interpreting Contexts and Skills module, this module will allow you to develop established techniques of research used in the design process and develop research methods and tactics necessary to result in an appropriate response to design briefs set in the Developing Practice module. You will also develop an understanding of the historical, contextual and critical basis of art, architecture and design and its analysis and interpretation. You will enhance your understanding of materials and construction technologies and processes used in formation of the interior and the experience of interior environments. You will effectively develop methods of representation and communication, and acquire new competences in a range of media necessary and appropriate to clearly illustrate design research and creative proposals in response to briefing material.
Building on prior learning in the Interpreting Practice module, this module will allow you to apply developed thinking in design and process into coherent design proposals for a range of commercial interiors, studied and communicated in comprehensive detail at various scales through to 1:1. You will also effectively develop approaches, methodologies and strategies that are appropriate to critically reflective design practice.
Building on prior learning in the Developed Contexts and Skills module and the Developed Practice module, this module will allow you to establish the essential role of in-depth research into cultural, historical, political and socio-economic contexts, within site generic commercial Interior Design Projects. You will produce project outcomes that illustrate embedded, contextual research within the design process focused on client needs and user experience, applied to the design of commercial interiors and branded environments. You will also be able to demonstrate knowledge of professional practice standards and procedures, and develop your understanding of employability opportunities, self-evaluation and personal career development.
Building on prior learning, this module will allow you to utilise employment experience to provide an insight into the work, methods and operation of a professional design practice. You will be able to apply your skills and knowledge to personal and professional practice, as well as have the opportunity to advance your professional knowledge and skills by experiencing a professional design practice working on real projects.
Building on prior learning, this module gives you the opportunity to gain an insight into the work, methods and operation of a professional design practice. You will be able to use the skills and knowledge acquired during the course to personal and professional practice, as well as having the opportunity to advance your professional knowledge and skills in the context of a professional design practice working on real projects.
Building on prior learning, this module will allow you to evidence advanced research into cultural, historical, political and socio-economic contexts, pertinent to Interior Design study through the production of a comprehensive research portfolio. You will critically review and develop an individual process of design, from inception, through design development, to the production of a coherent, detailed design proposal and portfolio. You will reflect upon creative currency within contemporary Interior Design practice to support the delivery of the design proposals for commercial interiors and branded environments of the highest standards. You will explore the important role of materiality within the experiential quality of interiors with aneconomic, ethical and ecological conscience, within a contemporary context, as well as synthesise your personal and professional approaches to the communication of proposed interior spaces through the use of an advanced range of techniques, and media. Your individual standards and skills, related to professional practice procedures will be reinforced, acknowledging issues of operation, management, advanced literacy and numeracy.
Building on prior learning, this module will allow you to consolidate the key role of advanced research into cultural, historical, political and socio-economic contexts, within responsible commercial Interior Design Projects. You will critically review and develop an individual process of design, from inception, through design development, to the production of a coherent, detailed design proposal and portfolio ready for employment. You will be encouraged to reflect upon creative currency within contemporary Interior Design practice to support the delivery of design proposals of the highest standards, as well as reinforce the important role of materiality within the experiential quality of interiors with aneconomic, ethical and ecological conscience, within a contemporary context. You will focus on synthesising your personal and professional approaches to the communication of proposed interior spaces through the use of an advanced range of techniques, and media. Your individual standards and skills, related to and reflecting upon professional practice procedures will be reinforced, acknowledging issues of operation, management and responsibilities of advanced literacy and numeracy.
See the course specification for more information about typical course content outside of the coronavirus outbreak:
Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
Each year we take our highest achieving graduates to the Interior Educators Exhibition held at the Truman Brewery. This event showcases Interior graduates' work from over 35 courses nationally.
Last year BA Interior Architecture graduate, Lauren Slevin, won the top award of Best Overall Student Project. Her project focused on issues of consumption, detoxification and well-being in the, soon to be remodelled, location of Smithfield Market, in East London.
We also won the Best Stand award for the best exhibition of student work, designed by a group of graduating students during their second year of study.
Interior Architecture and Interior Design students at Middlesex work on cross-disciplinary live projects which see them explore their creativity in exciting ways. A recent collaboration saw second year students work with Edgar Davey, visiting lecturer in graphic design and Middlesex alum, on an installation where Davey's mind blowing graphics were projected onto a sculptural form designed by the students.
Originally exhibited at the Red Gallery in London's Shoreditch, The Void has since been showcased at Middlesex's 2015 art and design degree show and at the Interior Educators exhibition at London's Truman Brewery.
Follow us on Instagram or scroll through the images below to see the great work our students have produced.
Melting Point Makers Outreach Centre - Anu Fraser
Melting Point Makers Outreach Centre - Anu Fraser
Makers Outreach Centre - Emma Ashton
A Promenade through Craft - Miaad Latoof
A Promenade through Craft - Miaad Latoof
Machine of Craft - Monika Sowa
Machine of Craft - Monika Sowa
Makers Outreach Centre - Prisca Mundia
Makers Outreach Centre - Anastasiia Karol
Graduates from the BA Interior Design course are equipped to fulfil design roles in interior design practices, specialist studios and consultancies, building and property companies, advisory agencies, and the design departments of public and commercial organisations. The creative industries sector is currently one of the fastest growing employment markets and graduates can take advantage of the many opportunities for design-related roles and activities across the built environment sector, as well as in the education, media, retail and entertainment sectors.
The course will also prepare you for further postgraduate and specialised study in interior architecture, interior design, the built environment, design history and theory, visual culture, and design management.
If you are interested in this course you might also like to find out about our MA Interiors (Architecture and Design).
The specialist resources and facilities available to students in the Grove are extensive and the most up-to-date available, and there is professional technical support in all areas to help you use our workshops and studios to the best advantage.
The Sheppard Library houses computing and audio-visual facilities, a language centre, learning support services and the student help centre. There is an entire floor dedicated to design resources, including the Materials and Product Collections.
The Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (MoDA) is MLA accredited and houses the important Silver Studio collection of late 19th and early 20th century decorative art and design, designated as of national importance, together with a range of other collections including the J M Richards Archive of books on architecture and town planning.
Jonathan has been both a professional Interior Designer and design educator for over twenty years. His specialisms include the design of hotels, spa’s and leisure spaces, restaurant design, exclusive residential design, and retail and exhibition design. He also worked on the design of a private island in the Caribbean. A keen advocate of contemporary visualising techniques which utilise graphical software, he also maintains a strong connection with hand drawing and painting, being an ardent Urbansketcher and life drawing. In 2015, Jon published a collection of short stories creating new myths for an old village in Kent and illustrated each of the fifty-five fairy tales with linocut black and white illustrations.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: October 2020, EU/International induction: September 2020
Duration: 3 years full-time
Code: K120
