module specification

 This Major Project module enables Interior Design and Decoration students to prepare for independent practice in the workplace or to progress onto higher studies. It is the opportunity to synthesise their specialist knowledge and skills and effectively communicate these. In this module, students will carry out the project conceived and developed in the parallel Project Design and Development module, fully realising it in appropriate physical form by the end of the module.

Students will exercise and display their abilities in selecting, analysing and applying knowledge, skills and understanding to a negotiated and fully researched project in order to properly understand their strengths, interests and position in the field, and the potential for their future professional development.

Students will show that they understand the complex and changing nature of problems in the professional sector of Interior Design and Decoration and can devise and apply realistic strategies for constructing, applying and managing a process designed to provide solutions.

A professional standard of realisation, contextualisation and presentation will be expected, providing the elements for a portfolio of practice with which students may enter the field of employment or self-employment or further studies.

 Completion and pass (120 credits) of previous level.

 Through a negotiated and agreed individual project, students will gain experience of:

Indicate LO addressed

• planning, recording, managing and developing a process for the production and completion of a researched proposal LO1, LO2, LO3
• aligning skills and knowledge in various areas of expertise and endeavour – technical, intellectual, creative, organisational, critical and interpersonal – to the successful conclusion of an integrated project LO1, LO2
• professional engagement, practice and process in the pursuit of the project LO3, LO4
• professional expectations of styles and quality of presentation LO4, LO5
• critically assessing their own work against standards expected in the field LO1, LO5

Scheduled teaching ensures that independent study is effective and addresses the learning outcomes and assessment tasks. Students are expected to, and have the opportunity to, continue with their studies outside of scheduled classes. There will be a range of learning strategies deployed and individual learning styles will be accommodated. The module’s learning outcomes, its contents and delivery, have been scrutinised and will be regularly reviewed to ensure an inclusive approach to pedagogic practice.

The module and course utilise the University’s blended learning platform to support and reinforce learning, to foster peer-to-peer communication and to facilitate tutorial support for students. Reflective learning is promoted through assessment items and interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, seek help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes, and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including reflections on progress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-related learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

 At the end of the module, students will be able to:

Cognitive Intellectual Skills
LO1 work independently, managing complex problems and tasks, critically analysing their own work and defending it including in the context of ethical issues arising;

Cognitive Intellectual Skills
LO2 demonstrate through the project, strategic and specific judgement in material, environmental and spatial decisions and the relationship of components and interior configuration to the fabric of buildings and the city;

Transferable Skills
LO3 transform and realise the outcomes of a design research and development project into a holistic plan for the production of the practice intended;

Subject Specific Skills
LO4 show their work in a fully contextualized way and to a professional standard, explaining or illustrating their position in the field, their strengths and interests and how they can continue to develop their professional capacity;

Subject Specific Skills
LO5: achieve professional standards of project management, realisation and communication as appropriate and expected in the discipline of Interior Design and Decoration.

At regular critiques or tutorials, students are expected to produce a coherent account of their project progress, together with critical evaluation of successes and failures to date. Formative feedback will be given in response to the project plan.

The final mark is given at the end of the module, following assessment of a comprehensive portfolio of all relevant developmental and presentation work and the final outcome itself.

All students are required to undertake formal interim presentations with evidence of continuous reflective journals responding to studio critique and tutorial guidance. Work presented will be subject to formal studio feedback from a panel of disciplinary specialists. This will inform final assessment outcomes and must be considered and acted upon by the student.

Work must be carefully organised and presented to indicate the development of work and the content clearly labelled. Students are required to attend timetabled studio and workshop sessions.

 Bairstow, J., Barber, R., and Kenny, M., (2000) Design modelling: visualising ideas in 2D and 3D, Hodder & Stoughton
Blaisse, P., (2009), Inside Outside, Monacelli Press

Boyle, G., (2003) Design Project Management, Ashgate Publishing
Clarkson, J. (ed.), (2003) Inclusive Design: Design For the Whole Population, Springer
Cooper, R., and Press, M., (2005) The design agenda: a guide to successful design management, John Wiley & Sons
Erwine, B., (2016) Creating Sensory Spaces, The Architecture of the Invisible, Routledge
Pile, J. and Gurna, J., (2013) A History of Interior Design, Laurence King
Reed, R., (2017) Color + design: transforming interior space, Fairchild
Schittich, C. (ed), (2002) Interior Spaces: Space, Light, Material, Birkhauser
Ebook:
Schittich, C., (2002) Interior spaces space, light, materials, München, Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation
Seidler, D. R., and Korte, A., (2010) Hand drawing for designers: communicating ideas through architectural graphics, Fairchild