| PROGRAMME |
| ANNUAL SCHEDULE COURSE 1 : DISCIPLINE RELATED REFLECTION (INTERIOR DESIGN) Study time: 640 hours. Duration: 40 weeks: week 1- 40. This course intends to teach students a reflexive design attitude in interior architecture. The sequence of the units parallels the realization of the research project. The students learn successively to explore the environment, to construct a design strategy, to develop a specific position, and to produce a reflexive perspective in text and design. In four subsequent units, the students learn how to relate to various contexts. Subsequent perspectives are directed towards developments in the social environment, the various strategies in design organizations, the various life and world views constituting design motives and, finally, the topical discussion in the professional field. The exercises related to this focus on a series of parts of the design process such as exploration, ordering, elaboration and representation. The way the units are constructed connects with the theme and also implies various practical situations such as contest entry, intake interview, business presentation and exposition. Unit 1: Exploration This unit starts with a historical reflection on power and seduction in the interior. The influence of the social field of force on the interior and the social input of the designer is questioned. The related assignment concerns the creation of a submission for a (fictional) contest with a social theme. The students study the backgrounds of the jury members and substantiate in their submission a point of view regarding these opinions. The design is the visualization of a concept and relates to interior aspects such as function, organization, routing, spatiality, attraction, decoration, i.e., interior is viewed as an interaction between illusion and reality. Assessment: This unit will be conducted in the form of analyzing the social and cultural influence on the use and imagination of the Interior Design. The given case must be analyzed, placed in a social context and redesigned. Unit 2: Arrangement In the second unit, courses and workshops focus on researching processes of transformation. Themes such as constructability, participation, enterprise, i.e., interior as a source of possibilities, will emerge. In this way, students learn to choose a position from the many roles emerging in a continuous process of transformation. At the same time, students develop insights in new roles in the field of interior architecture such as advisor, artistic entrepreneur, facility manager, project manager, and construction coordinator. Assessment: This unit will be conducted in the form of analyses of different processes of change and the roles the interior designer can take. Assessment criteria: You are able to contextualize a small-scale design process. Unit 3: Elaboration The third unit has a practical focus and surveys the various ways of realization and the relationship between production and marketing. Single copies, dummies, prototypes, controlled production, series production, i.e. interior considered as a product. Assessment: The design exercise is a group assignment and entails the realization of a setting: a collection of products creating a meaningful interaction between space and utilization. Students will create a presentation in a graduate school related institute with an accompanying catalogue. Unit 4: Representation In workshops and literature survey, the fourth unit studies a number of different views on life and housing. Students reflect on their own style of design, themes, and motives and learn how to position their practice in a philosophical and ideological context. Assessment: an experiment with interior concepts such as division, connection, communication, transparency, inspiration and home, i.e., interior considered as a source for humanity. The exercise will ultimately result in creating a business presentation where identity and ways of interactions will be further characterized. Reference materials: Hilde Heynen, This is architecture, 2000 Aaron Betsky, Architecture must burn, 2001 Aaron Betsky, False Flat. Why Dutch Design is So Good, 2004 Anne Massey, Interior Design of the 20th century, 2001 COURSE 2: DISCOURSE PRODUCTION Study time: 480 hours. Duration: 24 weeks: week 1-16 and week 25-32. The purpose of this collective MA course of study is to familiarize you with reflections on topical visual productions. Particularly the notion of research plays a decisive role in this. How could research in design be distinguished from other forms of research? You will learn to reflect methodologically, to formulate research hypotheses, to reflect on concepts, and to design research models. The program consists of three units of each eight weeks of instruction. For the program part Discourse Production (course 1, unit 1 and unit 3), students of the various pathways are divided in a foursome small work-shops. Here the first confrontation takes place between the various design disciplines and the discipline of fine art. This confrontation offers an optimal departure point for a climate where collaborative projects can emerge. Moreover, in week 32, at the end of the theory program, room has been created to produce such an experimental, transdisciplinary project. Unit 1: Cultural Studies (Week 1-8) The first unit is devoted to Cultural Studies. Primary subjects are Visual Culture, Aesthetic Experience, Intervisuality, Rhetorics and Communication, The Era of Information, Performativity, Brand & Styling, Globalization, Identity, Models of Critical Awareness. During these 8 weeks seminars will take place where major topical literature will be discussed in various seminars. You are expected to study the assigned literature in such a way that you are able to thoroughly contribute to the discussion. Assessment: This unit will be concluded in the form of a presentation (with a paper of 500 words), where you should demonstrate a critical assessment of the literature studied, if possible in the context of your own work/research (your research proposal). Unit 2: Concept Development: (Week 9-16) The second unit, Concept Development, will take place within your own discipline (Interior Design). Primary questions dealt with: What is a concept? How is a concept developed in the topical practice of design? How does a design concept differ from another concept? How can we describe the structure of design problems? Is design a reflective practice or a problem solving approach? What is a design solution? Assessment: The program will be in the form of a participatory seminar. You will independently prepare parts of the lecture and discuss these in the form of critical reports. The unit will be concluded with a paper (1000 words) in which a work-related concept (your pre-thesis) should be formulated. Unit 3: Cross-Cultural Studies: (Week 25-32) The third unit, Cross-Cultural Studies, is a collective part of the program. The central questions are: What is research? What is an artistic or a design methodology? How does these methods relate to other methodologies (various artistic disciplines, various scientific disciplines, philosophy)? And how does the research of your own design discipline contribute to the current cultural debate. Assessment: The unit will be concluded with a collective research project, taking place during the last week. An editorial board of both professional and theoretical lecturers will participate in this project. The research theme becomes formulated every year in dialogue with the Reader in Artistic Research. The theme connects with the Graduate School as such. During the course 2006-2007 the research theme will deal with the concept of experience. COURSE 3: INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH Study time: 800 hours. Duration 32 weeks: week 17-48. Course 3 is characterized as a stage of production. It is the place where you modify and realize independently the project proposal presented at the start of the program. Individual research activities and visual results will be evaluated in group-discussions. During the group discussion, you report on the progress of your research in the form of a research presentation. In critical discussions, the methodological premises and the project proposal will be evaluated and, if necessary, adjusted. In regular conferences between student and lecturer, the progress of the research is monitored. You should be able (in writing and in image) to communicate the premises of your research and be able to adjust the premises based on various try-outs and critical discussions. In addition, you will render an account of the meaning of the chosen context for situating your work and concept. The reflexive investigation should continuously demonstrate a dynamic interaction between theoretical concepts and design practice. The written work will be completed in a final thesis (essay 5000 words). In the thesis, the research trajectory, the chosen methodological plan and the critical position within the process of communication are all theoretically founded. In addition, you are involved in a presentation concept of your work. The presentation and the public defence of the thesis (End of August 2006) form the completion of the program. |
