Why study this course?
This is a top-up version of the Interior Design and Decoration BA (Hons) degree. A top-up degree is the final year (Level 6) of an undergraduate degree course and is for those who have a foundation degree, Higher National Diploma or equivalent qualification, or those wishing to study the final year of their degree in London.
The course enables you to embrace material exploration for decorative interior environments. It will draw upon the wide range of contexts within the interiors industry, covering domestic, retail, exhibition, hotel, leisure and public spaces.
The design projects featured on this course investigate private, community, commercial and sustainable interior environments. You will consider the spatial and material relationships within surfaces, furniture, artefacts and textiles. You will develop both graphic and applied decorative making skills to enable the testing, sampling and representation of your ideas.
Using the workshop facilities and expertise, you will work with different materials (hard and soft) and mark-making approaches to experiment and collaborate with other students and experts across a range of related disciplines (including furniture, upholstery, textiles and metals) utilising a breadth of material techniques with traditional and digital workshop processes.
Historically, decorative designers have expressed through their work the latest technological and fashion advances, in line with trends that colour our material culture and vernacular history. Important archives are kept with institutions such as the V&A, Geffrye Museum and RIBA which allow us to research sources, methods and approaches for contemporary practice.
You will have the opportunity to explore and develop ideas for historic and modern contexts, acquiring knowledge of graphic skills and composition, fabrication techniques, manufacturing processes, mark-making, material exploration and practice for the intimate and private, or public scales of interior decoration. As a developing designer you will use this knowledge to develop sensory and aesthetically sophisticated decorative environments that communicate emotionally, culturally, socially and physically with you audience.
Throughout the course, you will be asked to consider and position your skills and interests in relation to the industry to develop a portfolio that expresses your individual practice. The course operates within a programme of related interior design undergraduate awards, bringing together best practice from related fields.
Accreditation of Prior Learning
Any university-level qualifications or relevant experience you gain prior to starting university could count towards your course.
Modular structure
The modules listed below are for the academic year 2022/23 and represent the course modules at this time. Modules and module details (including, but not limited to, location and time) are subject to change over time.
Year 3 modules include:
Critical & Contextual Studies 3: Dissertation (Interiors) (core, 30 credits)
Integrated Design Practice (core, 30 credits)
Major Project Realisation: Interior Design and Decoration (core, 30 credits)
Project Design and Development for Interiors (core, 30 credits)
Where this course can take you
As an interior decoration specialist, you’ll have the skills and expertise to work in all sectors of the interiors industry from private clients to high-end residential, hotel and retail work. Following graduation, many of our students have gone on to work for some of the best interior design, furniture and architecture practices in London.
Recent graduates have been employed by design companies including Design International, Swarovski, Seen Displays, Turner Bates, Areen, Ayllot van Tromp, Green Room Design and Lumsden Design. Many graduates have gone on to work in TV and film set design, animation, lighting design, art gallery curation and journalism.
