Interior and Spatial Design

The BA Interior and Spatial Design encourages you to engage critically with contemporary design through projects conducted in a studio environment, that promote the conceptual and practical skills required of interior design and spatial design professionals.

Working with existing buildings and spaces, you explore different possibilities for habitation and use. The course focuses on designing complex architectural spaces, discreet multi-media installations and sensory environments. Chelsea's vibrant art college context is vital in providing opportunities to uncover overlapping concerns between the different disciplines being taught within the College. We encourage experimental and creative design practice that is contextually and intellectually adventurous.

A wide-ranging theory programme encourages individual enquiry and debate and deepens your understanding of design issues, while professional practice is developed through participation in external competitions, live projects and a lively evening lecture programme.

Recently the course has been awarded funding from the Centre for Excellence in Teaching & Learning to develop a new suite of digital facilities including a custom-designed file sharing database and website, wireless internet access across studios, computer hardware and software, laser cutting machinery and a Black Box Media Space which will enable students to display audio-visual work and drawings in a digital gallery space.

Course Structure

Year 1:
In the first year you will develop an understanding of the context in which we work, the processes by which we design and the language that we employ to communicate ideas. You will be introduced to the course, workshop and computer facilities and drawing exercises. You investigate characteristics of site and context through a sequence of design projects. You also look at the notion of spatial organisation and sequential space, and explore multi-media techniques to present your designs. A lecture and seminar programme investigates the vocabulary of architecture and design.

Year 2:
During the second year you are encouraged to develop your own theoretical position, and to test how this might influence your proposals at both a strategic and detailed level. Live projects replicate professional practice conditions, and you will engage in the use of computing to generate digital 3D models of your design proposals. You will be asked to design of a site-specific piece of 'architectural furniture' and a complex 'spatial sequence' using 2D and 3D CAD techniques. Professional practice and construction issues are taught through analysis of buildings by photographic and drawing surveys, and instruction is given into how briefs for building programmes are assessed, developed and interpreted. There is further study of the theoretical context of design.

Year 3:
In the final year you will choose a studio group to work with, each with its own tutors with distinct ways of developing design proposals. You will develop a final design project within the remit of the particular studio culture, which involves developing your own design language and agendas. You must also identify a topic for individual research and produce a thesis on the subject.