module specification

This module introduces a range of historical, cultural and industry contextual knowledge and practice. It enables you to carry out your creative practice in associated modules with a secure understanding of basic historic and cultural contexts, and interior design industry practice and expectations.

The module aims to motivate you to be enquiring and to engage critically in the practice and culture of interior design: you will be encouraged to ask questions and shown how to conduct information gathering and basic research in order to construct your answers. You will begin to acquire discipline-specific skills in designing and visual recording and communication, using industry standard techniques. In this way, the module will help you  begin to shape your future direction of study as well as providing useful insights into your individual potential and abilities.

Co-requisite: DN3000 Introduction to Interior Design: Practice

The module has two strands of study:

• an introduction to the historical and cultural contexts of interior design, and the practice and design process of contemporary industry;

• an introduction to industry-specific typologies and details and the recording of them, to enable an understanding of the built environment, communicated through observational techniques, drawing, annotation and critical reflection.

In the first strand, you will be introduced to the contextual and historical position of the main studio project, introducing both the historical architecture and design movements, discussing the community demographic to provide the contextual basis for design within the studio. You will study the structural elements and materiality and in order to do this you will be shown how to ‘read’ a space, and discover how to search for information that may help you to do this.

You will also conduct case studies of contemporary interior design and interior design companies, seeking to discover how the practice of interior design is conducted and the range of practice and outcomes that exist in the contemporary field. Particularly, you will arrive at an understanding of how teams are constructed and work, how responsibilities are shared and how consultants and other specialists are engaged to fulfil the project.

In the second strand, you will be introduced to a range interior design processes and practices, including communication skills and drawing styles, orthographic conventions and modelling. This will support and enable the work undertaken in the associated module, DN3001 Introduction to Interior Design: Practice.

WebLearn is used to deliver information and assessments, to feed back to students and to foster student to student communication. All students will engage with the digital archiving and presentation of their work, using a range of means and platforms, including for assessment, peer assessment and peer to peer learning. The required creation of portfolios, including digital formats and content, is a preparation of employability skills for professional life.

Scheduled teaching provides the guidance and foundation to ensure that independent study is effective in addressing the module’s learning outcomes and assessment tasks.

In-class activity makes use of varied student-centred approaches such as active, flipped and blended learning, so that a range of learning strategies is deployed, and individual learning styles are accommodated. Information is provided through a range of means and sources to minimise and remove barriers to successful progress through the module. The course team seeks to embed the University’s Education for Social Justice Framework in fostering learning that is enjoyable, accessible, relevant and that takes account of the social and cultural context and capital of its students.

Activities foster peer-to-peer community building and support for learning. Reflective learning is promoted through interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, receive 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 written reflections on progress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-based learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal and career 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.

On successful completion of the module, to the standard expected at Level 3, you will be able to:

Cognitive intellectual abilities

1. demonstrate knowledge of selected key movements and exemplars of interior design and show with some critical understanding, how they reflect their context;

Knowledge and understanding

2. know how to locate, access and use a range of information sources (in libraries, collections, exhibitions, journals, e-resources) and be able to write and otherwise communicate effectively;

Subject specific skills

3. have an awareness of the design development process of interior design commercial practice and how the sector works in a multi-disciplinary context;

4. describe and record the elements and the materiality of an interior-designed space using industry standard techniques at a basic level;

5. apply simple industry standard practices and conventions in 2D and 3D visualisation and modelling, both analogue and digital, to interior design tasks;

Professionalism and values

6. show evidence of self-reflection and an emerging awareness of your own interests and abilities, and how they might relate to the interior design sector.

There are two assessment items.

1. Essay and Case Study

Students will submit an illustrated essay (1200-1500 words) on a topic chosen from a list reflecting the areas of historical and contextual study studied. The essay will use academic apparatus, including referencing.

Students will submit an illustrated case study (800-1200 words) of a contemporary interior designer, interior design studio or practice, examining and describing the practice in terms of how it functions, the type of work it undertakes, how it promotes itself and constructs its practice image and reputation.

2. Portfolio

Students will submit a portfolio of 2D and 3D practice demonstrating their ability in a range of industry standard techniques and conventions.

Detailed requirements will be published in briefs at the start of the semester.

http://https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/22ADCE4E-DE4D-2D52-2498-C4C8113988A4.html?lang=en&login=1