module specification

This module develops and applies the knowledge and skills established in DN4008, and in preparation for AR6004, Integrated Design Practice, at Level 6. The module will develop student’s understanding of approaches to the production of interior spaces through the strategic and detailed understanding of design processes.

The module focuses in more detail on how different aspects of material, construction, services and environmental design interact within the context of larger and/or more complex interiors and buildings. The module will provide a progressively more detailed knowledge of the interior from structure, interior organisation to details of fixings, fittings and surfaces.

The module introduces methods, terms and techniques that can be used to evaluate and describe the range of different relationships that appear under the heading of technology. In particular, the module investigates interiors that may involve multiple clients, for example, retail, hotels or public buildings. It examines how and why standards are developed as well as the remit for research and experiment.

The development and production of a range of drawn (manual and CAD) and written information is used to establish an understanding of professional standards in design communication and the individual’s scope to represent ideas and decisions precisely.

Pass and completion of Prior Level

The module aims to:

• Develop the student’s confidence in making design decisions.
• Establish the student’s understanding of the range of contextual and technological factors that contribute to realising a design idea
• Enhance the student’s knowledge and understanding of materials and construction, and familiarize them with the process of how to make well-considered judgments about their use.
• Develop the students range of analytical, practical and conceptual skills and the design language to effectively communicate these to different audiences
• Extend and refine students’ use of drawn and modelled information to suit different needs

A series of lectures and workshops supported by group tutorials will support each stage of the module.
The module has three stages;

1. The analysis of interior and architectural precedents to understand the effect of strategic factors, considerations and decisions on the design and organisation of Interior spaces;
2. The detailed understanding of a physical space or component;
3. The implementation and application of this accumulated knowledge on a design project.

The first stage requires students to produce an individual, analytical and critical investigation of a design precedent. The project considers the designers’ role in producing a design in relation to contextual, technological and theoretical issues; the understanding of the design development from client and concept through to strategic organization and to built space, and generally; the competing concerns informing the organization and making of interior space. Through the production of drawings, diagrams and models ,they will seek to extrapolate the diverse organisational factors around which decisions are made.

The second stage focuses on understanding construction, materials and finishes within a particular setting or purpose. The project looks at design development at a detailed level through a process of reverse engineering of an existing interior component. Students are introduced to the range of production drawings, information and specification required to build. Processes and conventions are described in relation to the different audiences they serve. This will include demonstrations of industry standard methods of production, in University workshops, or hosted at external industrial facilities. Working in small teams, students will research and collate information prior to the individual production of set of detailed drawings.

The third stage integrates the first two by applying the knowledge, skills and processes to student’s own design project (as undertaken within the studio). Students will research relevant materials, technologies and processes – including those new and forthcoming – that would be deployed in the design and production of an element of their interior design.

The module introduces and develops a range of knowledge and skills required to design and produce interiors and meet professional industry standards. A significant weight is placed on the development of specific drawn information and representation, combined with precise and particular written information.

There will be group and small teamwork at different points in the module. The output of these is research and the collation of information specified in the project brief or identified by the students. The project work submissions for each stage of the module, will be individual and will comprise of distinct sets of drawings and other documentation.

Lectures will introduce and develop knowledge of materials, technologies and strategic considerations. Workshops and demonstrations will introduce, and group tutorials develop, drawing techniques, constructional and material knowledge and other means of communicating design information.

Successful learning in this module is dependent upon regular attendance and engagement in the scheduled teaching and the level of self-managed study undertaken. The tool to manage and achieve this is the ‘Practice Book’. The Practice Book requires the student to record each learning event – lecture, workshop etc. - and their participation, contribution and reflection upon these. The book will also collate and present the first stages of the module together with research and specification for the student project. This is the principle assessment item.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Understand the value and professional use of a range of design information and terminology and begin to apply these appropriately
2. Produce accurate and appropriate diagrams, drawings and text to represent or respond to specific contextual, technological and regulatory factors in a design for an interior.
3. Demonstrate their understanding of the integrated relationship between ideas, context, technologies and environment in the production of interior designs
4. Identify and classify different structural, environmental, constructional and material systems conceptually and practically;
5. Undertake through drawing the integrated study of the technology involved in a simple design proposal for an interior space or component;
6. Produce a collated, coherent body of work demonstrating their engagement and learning

Practice Book
The Practice Book is a collated A3 document presenting the precedent study (stage 1), the reverse engineering project (stage 2) and the research supporting the development of the detailed design proposal and the subject of the annotated drawings (stage 3).

The book also documents each student’s participation in the core lectures, demonstrations and workshops. It demonstrates the student’s working process throughout the module in relation to each stage and consists of text, photographs (scanned, labelled and annotated), sketches, diagrams, scaled drawings and a set of references for all texts consulted. Appropriate cross-referencing to studio practice, CCS and external references and ideas is encouraged.

The book should be organised clearly carefully and knowledge and understanding of the principles of the core syllabus areas: structures, materials and construction, building services, environmental comfort and sustainability.

Annotated Drawings
1:50, 1:20 and 1:5 scaled, referenced and coordinated orthographic drawings demonstrating, as appropriate to the subject matter, the integration of structure, building services, materials, construction, and the detailing of interior elements in their own design project.

The accuracy, legibility and aesthetic judgement shown in these drawings and those in the Practice book will be a key assessment consideration.

Anink, D. & Boonstra, C. (1996) Handbook of Sustainable Building: An Environmental Preference Method for Choosing Materials in Construction and Renovation Revised ed., James & James.
Ching, FDK. (2007) (3rd edition) Architecture,; Form, Space and Order, John Wiley & Sons
Deplazes, A. ed. (2005) Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures, a Handbook, Basel : London: Birkhäuser.
Plunkett, D. & Reid, O. (2013) Detail in Contemporary Hotel Design (& rest of series) Laurence King
Schittich, C. (2008) In Detail: Interior Surfaces and Materials: Materials for Interiors, Birkhäuser
Yakeley, D. (2010) The BIID Interior Design Job Book, RIBA Publishing