module specification

The module analyses and reflects upon the interaction of people, space and things that is at the root of interior design. You will explore ways to analyse, contextualise and interpret their relationship in relation to a specific interior.

For you to achieve this there are three aspects to the module; first the drawn analysis of the space; second the reading and responding to texts, films and other media that help establish a contextual perspective; and third through the combination of these approaches, the production of an interpretative narrative that offers a new visual and textual reading of the space.
You will be asked to develop your ability to synthesize the spatially analytic understanding of an interior space with the contexts in which it was produced and has subsequently developed. Through this, you should extend and refine a range of representational skills to describe the composition of an interior.

Not available for Study abroad

Using London, the module will explore the composition, scale and experience of the interior in the city and the social and cultural context in which it was produced and has since been occupied.

Context for the interior is a complex discourse. At the scale of the city, the urban and architectural setting and the historical and socio-economic circumstance of the space’s production and subsequent development have not always been prominent in either the design or critique of interior design. At the scale of inhabitation, the fabric of the interior - linings, utilities, furniture, artefacts - needs to be understood on its own merits but also, critically, as choreographed elements that, through the space they occupy, are in dialogue with the scale of the city.

The interrogation of these interior spaces in relation to the cultural conditions of the occupiers and their inhabitation enables a more rigorous understanding of material, technology and innovation and notions of ownership, value and public and private space.

In considering ‘designed spaces’, students will look at the real or perceived disparities between the intended and/or completed interior and its subsequent inhabitation and use this as a stimulus to interpret the space.

Through a series of case studies, together with texts, films and visits, students will develop spatial and textual narratives as a means of testing notions of space, inhabitation and value.

The narrative is textual and graphic and, whether reflective or interpretive, presents an individual commentary and critique of the interior chosen for analysis.

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.

1. offer an integrated analytical, contextual and speculative interpretation of an interior space;
2. employ a range of interpretive and theoretical positions in the written exploration of interior space;
3. represent the composition of an interior through the drawn/visual analysis of spatial, material and artefactual elements;
4. demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of the cultural context of an interior, its production and inhabitation.

The module submission consists of an illustrated document. This proposes an integrated narrative interpretation of an interior, consisting of visual analysis of an interior and textual commentary (2500-3000 words)

The work will be assessed in relation to:

• the quality of investigation, thinking and understanding in the analysis of an interior;
• the demonstration of intellectual clarity and creative rigour in the narrative interpretation of the design and context of an interior;
• the appropriateness of theoretical and interpretive positions considered or employed;
• the graphic quality, imagination and clarity of the spatial compositional analysis;
• the ambition shown in integrating visual and textual analysis, reflection and speculation in construction of the narrative.

Students are expected to maintain appropriate records of their work as it develops and to contribute to discussion of their own and others’ work. Students therefore have the opportunity to learn from feedback given throughout the course and continuously improve their portfolio of work for the final summative assessment.

http://https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/3538328E-E01E-A373-5990-1DEE911352E4.html?lang=en&login=1