module specification

This module develops and applies the knowledge and skills established in DN4018 Interior Design Communication and Techniques, and prepares you for DN6029, Integrated Design Practice, at Level 6. The module will develop your understanding and confidence in approaching the analysis and production of interior spaces through strategic and detailed design processes.

The module focuses in detail, through analytical building studies and reflective precedents, on how different aspects of context and history, and of material, construction, services and environmental design, interact in large or complex interiors and buildings. The module will provide a progressively more detailed knowledge of the interior from structure through interior organisation, to construction details of fixings, fittings and finishes. The module introduces methods, terms and techniques that can be used to evaluate and describe the range of different relationships that exist within interiors. It examines how and why professional practice standards are relevant as well as the remit for research, analysis and knowledge of construction and detail.

The main component focuses on the development and production of a range of drawn information, such as analytical and illustrative diagrams, and orthographic drawings, with written information used to establish an understanding of professional standards in design communication and the individual’s capacity to represent ideas and decisions precisely.

The module will use different learning and teaching methods to establish an understanding of professional practice through the analysis of spatial conditions, including site visits, surveys, case studies, introduction to regulatory guidelines and supportive lectures. The module will enhance development of CAD skills and increase knowledge of construction and detailing.

In addition, the module features a work placement component adding practical, relevant, insightful experience to the curriculum where a strategic and informed approach to the workplace can start to develop, this is embedded and developed through a CV, and reflective journal.

Pre-requisite: DN4018

The module has two components and incorporates the following stages:

1. an analytical, illustrated report document that involves the recording and analysis of a building’s context, interior spaces and conditions through specific drawn approaches to understand the effect of strategic factors, and decisions on the design and organisation of interior spaces that show approach and access, journey, viewing points, environmental analysis of spaces, light, sound and heat, and the building programme identifying public and private spaces;
2. a detailed understanding of a physical space or component evidenced in orthographic drawing at various scales, including construction and details;
3. work-related learning;
4. generation of a detailed journal reflecting on work-related learning experience;
5. personal development planning through review of CV and SWOT analysis;
6. implementation and application of this accumulated knowledge to a design project.

The first stage of component 1 requires you to produce an individual, analytical and critical investigation of a building and its interior spaces that may be related to the main studio project. The exercise introduces professional practice approaches and considers the designer’s role in producing an illustrated, analytical document in relation to contextual and technological requirements.

The second stage of component 1 will focus on developing an understanding of construction, materials and finishes within a given interior context. The exercise investigates at a detailed level, through a process of reverse engineering, an existing interior component in relation to the building study.

In both stages of component 1, you will be introduced to the range of professional practice approaches, analytical diagrams, production drawings, information and specification required by industry at various stages from project inception to build. This will include demonstrations of industry standard methods of production supported by professional practice lectures. Working in small teams, you will research and collate information prior to the individual production of sets of analytical, illustrative and detailed orthographic drawings. You will research relevant materials, technologies and processes including those new and forthcoming that could be deployed in the design and production of an element of your main interior design project.

Both stages will be realised in a collated, illustrated report-style document that is preparation for the Level 6 Integrated Design Practice Report.

Component 2, focuses on work-related learning. A series of lectures and workshops, CV writing classes and the study of professional roles and responsibilities will support your readiness for employment applications and readiness for the work placement. This is followed by a reflective and critical account of the professional context of your work-related learning experiences.

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 Interiors courses 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 5, you will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

1. understand the value and professional use of a range of design information and terminology and begin to apply these appropriately by producing accurate and appropriate diagrams, drawings and texts to represent or respond to specific contextual, technological and regulatory factors in a design for an interior;

2. identify and classify different structural, environmental, constructional and material systems in relation to a particular building context;

Cognitive and Intellectual Abilities

3. demonstrate your understanding of the integrated relationship between ideas, context, technologies and environments in the production of interior designs;

Subject Specific Skills

4. undertake a placement within the interiors sector, recording and analysing the experience of the professional context; and identifying personal strengths and possible career routes, through a written and illustrated account;

5. produce a collated, coherent body of work demonstrating your engagement and learning;

Transferable Skills

6. undertake through a series of analytical drawings and annotated scaled detail drawings; a building study and a detailing exercise for an interior component within a given space.

The module will be assessed through the following three components.

Component 1: analysis, building and precedent studies

Analysis: the building study is the first part of a final collated, illustrative report document presenting the research and analysis of a given building and its interior spaces through a set of criteria following professional practice approaches.

Component 2: construction and detail report

Construction and Detail: a reverse engineering exercise is the second part of the final collated report, and includes the development of annotated detail at typical scales of 1:50, 1:20 and 1:5. It will include referenced and coordinated orthographic drawings demonstrating the integration of structure, building services, materials and construction.

Component 3 work-related learning journal

A work placement reflective and critical document together with CV and SWOT analysis demonstrating your personal development planning.

The accuracy, legibility and aesthetic judgement shown in all outcomes, the report document (including the building study and reverse engineering exercise) and the work-related learning journal will be a key assessment consideration.

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