module specification

Critical and Contextual Studies (CCS) Level 4 aims to orient and critically engage students in the history and theory of their discipline, its extent and conventions, and its broader social and material context in culture and contemporary practice.

The module helps students to reflect on what they see, and to read connections between different ideas that have shaped their discipline. In particular the module investigates how thinking and articulating ideas about practice in their field might be framed – for example in relation to history, the economy, society and the environment, or through theory and practice.

The module introduces students to a range of academic skills needed to produce a graduate-level study in their final year. It helps students to develop their own interests, and to reflect on and take responsibility for the development of their own learning. This includes surveys in the history of their discipline, research and writing workshops, seminars, library sessions, visits and tours in addition to guided independent learning

Co-requisites: this module is part of a study abroad programme not available to home students. Only to be taken together with DN4008S, DN4009S and DN4015S

Orientation

Students will undertake a set and guided programme of reading and visits to sites in and around London. These will provide a context for the ‘Histories and Theories’ of Interior Design to be studies in this module. Students will keep and submit for assessment a concise ‘travel journal’ describing and visually recording  their visits, with annotations explaining the significance in design and contextual terms of the buildings, institutions and sites visited.  LO 1-6

Histories and Theories

The module content considers the history and theoretical context of interior design the early modern and modern periods, andintroduces non-western traditions. The concept and necessity of thinking in terms of histories (plural) is introduced. These may variously include gendered, sexual, ethnic and religious histories. Issues such as ‘public and private’ and concepts such as ‘thresholds’ are introduced by way of broadening critical thinking and approach. New design types are examined (through visits and classroom teaching) as a means of expanding horizons and offering creative scope for thinking through the subject area. Seminars constitute a thematic course in basic theory, introducing important ideas such as modernity, representation, language, in plain English. Students write short theoretical texts of their own and are encouraged to express their ideas clearly and simply.  LO 1-6

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.

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.

On successful completion of the module students will be able:

1. to use information retrieval systems and develop appropriate methods for collecting, organising and deploying knowledge;
2. to read and interpret different kinds of written texts and other key sources of documented knowledge, such as recorded sound or images, objects and artefacts;
3. to demonstrate some familiarity with the scope of their discipline and understand that it has broader ethical, historical, social, cultural, economic and practice-based contexts;
4. to articulate a critical understanding of the objects of their study, noting specific terms, languages, references, genres and audiences;
5. to become aware of the relationship between some of the the theories and practices of their discipline in its creative application;
6. to effectively respond to and reflect upon feedback on their own work in order to develop and improve their learning.

The module is assessed through two components:

1. Illustrated and annotated ‘travel journal’ (800-1000 words)
2. Essay (1,700–2,200 words) 

Module assessment criteria:
1. application and engagement;
2. quality of content (research, accuracy, relevance, scope);
3. quality of presentation (English, references, terminology, literacy, protocols);
4. effective structure (clarity, links, synthesis);
5. deployment of critical and analytical skills (argument, interpretation, discussion).

Core Readings
• Massey, A., Sparke, P., (2009), Designing the Modern Interior. From the Victorians to Today, Berg
• Aynsley, J., Grant, C., McKay, H., (2006), Imagined Interiors, Representing the Domestic Interior Since the Renaissance, V&A Publications
• Massey, A., (2008), Interior Design Since 1900, Thames and Hudson

Further Readings
• Berger, J., (2008), Ways of Seeing, Penguin Classics
• Breward, C., Fisher, F., Wood, G., (2015), British Design. Tradition and Modernity after 1948, Bloomsbury
• Cornforth, J., (1978), The Quest for Comfort, English Interiors, 1790-1848, Barrie and Jenkins
• Fisher, F., Sparke, P., (2016), The Routledge Companion to Design Studies, Routledge
• Fisher, F., Keeble, T., Lara-Betancourt, P., (2011), Performance, Fashion and the Modern Interior: From the Victorians to Today, Berg
• Forty A. (2002) Objects of Desire; design and society since 1750, Thames and Hudson
• Fowler, J.(1974), English Decoration in the Eighteenth Century, Barrie and Jenkins
• Gere, C., (1989), Nineteenth Century Decoration. The Art of the Interior, Weidenfeld and Nicholson
• Maffei, G., L., (2013) Design at Home: Design Advice Books in Britain and the USA since 1945
• McKay, H., (2016) in Keeble, T., Martin., B., Sparke, P., (2006), The Modern Period Room, Routledge
• Millon, H. A. (1963), Key monuments of the history of architecture, Prentice-Hall
• Muthesius. S., The Poetic Home. Designing the Ninetheenth Domestic Interior, Thames and Hudson
• PEVSNER, N. (2009). An outline of European architecture. London, Thames & Hudson.

• Saumarez-Smith, C., (2000) The Rise of Design, Design and the Domestic Interior in the Eighteenth Century
• Sparke, P., (2008), The Modern Interior, Reaktion
• Sparke, P., (2005), Elsie de Woolf, Acanthus
• Walker, J., A., (1990), Design History and the History of Design, Pluto Press

Journals, Websites and Databases
• Design Indaba (web)
• Dezeen (web)
• inhabitat.com (web)
• www.didb.ac.uk (Domestic Interiors Database)
• Design History Society Journal