MA Interior Design 2016

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MA INTERIOR DESIGN MA Interior Design embraces the truth that true creative spirit is born out of a radical review of the interior design process. This year the programme has provided our postgraduate students with exciting spatial design opportunities and inspiring events that have enabled them to explore their creativity and the philosophical perspectives that have informed their unique approaches and contribution to the interior architecture and design realm in the twenty-first century.

Our goal on the MA Interior Design course is to help our postgraduates to develop their own signature ethical and creative design manifesto. “What does being creative mean to you?”, “How do you want to design in the future?” and “With whom do you want to work?” are key questions that we have asked our students to consider. This has helped us to enter into discourse about the significance of design values and the creation of unique cultural identities for our international interior designers.

Students on the MA interior architecture and design programme have reported excellent student satisfaction results and have achieved an outstanding 96% employment rate after a period of only six months. They tell us that they have benefited from the experience of the programme and support of design practitioners, architects and researchers across a range of interior design fields: • Design Communication, • Creative Processes, • Sustainability, • Lighting, • Humanities, • Strategic Design Management.

Delia Skinner BA, MA, M’ED, SFHEA Programme Director – MA Interior Design

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Tutors: Delia Skinner Graham Powell Suus Mulligan Alumni Mentors: Huichao Feng - PhD study “The changing pattern of residential dwelling of the Mosuo Tribe in China” Tamadher Alfahal - Alumni of the Year 2015

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Mengru Li

LIVE PROJECT – MR CHAMDAL’S APOTHECARY The Interior Design programme sits within the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design.

This vibrant community is made up of staff, students, designers, researchers and industry partners.

Strong creative bridges between postgraduate courses, enables our students to tailor their learning to suit their unique professional ambitions. We encourage and support our postgraduate students to work collaboratively with other creative people both inside and outside the University. By doing this they cement rich cultural, creative and professional collaborations.

The Rationale for the Design Systems Module: Engagement with industry & industry-based scenarios is a key aspect of this module. This industry orientated assignment focused the attention of our students on the leisure sector and required them to conduct research about how niche ‘grooming’ services are being situated within

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global, regional, national & international contexts.

Throughout the module students needed to prove their appreciation of international commercial cultures by justifying the potential connections that this research could have, with new market opportunities & design innovations.

Establishing the Brief – students were asked to create an imaginative design scheme for a particular grooming sector. This needed to be a commercial viable offer - a grooming orientated business opportunity, that would launch a new brandscape for: “Mr Chamdal’s Apothecary”. In this project, our students refined the brand identity to reflect the philosophy and culture associated with the local entrepreneur – Bhavnesh Chamdal. They needed to consider the way that the brand values and characteristics associated with the brand, could be represented in an interior design concepts that they developed.

LI Yibo

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LI Yibo - ‘Nightmare’ experiential installation

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SIGNATURE PROJECTS Intangible Cultures and Lost Heritage has been a prominent global theme that has concerned our creative community during the last year. Projects have been refined that reinforce mindful connections between the creative practitioner, the design process and the evolution of purposeful and challenging design proposals.

The programme requires student to engage in the formation of persuasive and graphically ingenious self directed ‘Signature Projects’ that capture and convey their innovative design processes, unique proposals and astute insights that academically, professionally and creatively test their particular Design Hypothesis. The production of a distinctive and creative ‘Practice Portfolio’ has allowed them to showcase their unique design talents and the influence that this has had on others, shifting the perceived boundaries of the interior design profession towards new horizons.

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NAN Cheng - ‘Nai Nai’ - Chinese Herbal Pharamacy

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KE Yanyan - ‘Hong - Eating the Past’ - Conceptual Installation

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LI Yibo - ‘Nightmare’ experiential installation

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XU Zeng - ‘Cai Jioa’ - The Two Horse Motel

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LI Mengmeng - 2016 - Music and Scent Installation

LI Mengru - ‘Pitta Kaak’ Bakery

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POON Hiuki - ‘The Taste of Tai O’ heritage space

ZHU Ruoyu - ‘Solo Philosophy Diner’

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www.bcu.ac.uk/architecture-and-design

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