Course description

Are you interested in seeing your design ideas through to realisation? This accredited course will equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to create amazing designs spanning across a range of venue spaces for current and future societies. If you are passionate about making a positive impact on society and our environment through design, then Interior Architecture and Venue Design is the course for you. We endeavour to support your personal approach to design through our studio culture, excellent facilities, and committed staff.

Our course aims to empower the next generation of designers through innovative and creative techniques that open doors for industry-ready graduates:

• Boost your professional credibility on a course accredited by the Chartered Society of Designers
• Develop your spatial, aesthetic, and communication skills for a wide range of audiences, applying this to architectural and interior design practice
• Understand the significance of professional practice, collaboratively with diverse teams, leading the design of projects, and how to protect your Intellectual Property
• Engage in live project briefs in the region and beyond to celebrate the cutting edge of design thinking and innovation, presenting your work to real-world clients
• Showcase your work at our end of year exhibition, and as part of our Student Showcase

Interior Architecture and Venue Design at Derby

‌We believe that design can have a significant impact on our lives and is a determining factor on how we experience the world around us and interact with each another. On this course, you will have the opportunity to plan and design for a multitude of project briefs from live performance spaces, social and community spaces, exhibitions, galleries, brand retail, outlets, museums, and music venue, to name but a few. This course therefore appeals to those passionate about design and creating positive spaces.

Interior Architecture encompasses all aspects of interior space, material, use, and structure. You will develop a broad range of construction and technical knowledge that will inform your design process and equip you with the skills to communicate effectively with others in industry. Venue Design focuses on the versatility, excitement, and imagination that great venue spaces can create, and is what makes our course truly unique. We are inspired to examine the changing nature of space and the hybridity of its use, particularly those that adapt to the social, economic, cultural, and ecological characteristics that dynamic, contemporary life requires. Our exciting position between the built environment and design means that we investigate the big, global challenges around climate emergency and the health and wellbeing of building users, but also the creative and social uses a space such as art, dance, fashion, film, music, and theatre, to name but a few.

Students on our Interior Architecture and Venue Design course will develop projects that consider both the aesthetic and technical elements of spaces and venues. There will be opportunity to design completely new structures, but also to design within and around existing buildings, considering their adaptive re-use and appropriateness. You will have the opportunity to develop personal design narratives, evaluate your work and the work of your peers, work independently and in groups, and communicate design atmospheres through the development of your portfolio.

Design is a form of communication that must speak to a range of diverse audiences. This course allows you to challenge design concepts and their realisation through experimentation and exploration, celebrating the ideas of diverse, inquisitive, and curious individuals.

To prepare for this course in Interior Architecture and Venue Design, you must be passionate about all aspects of design and have the desire to draw and make. You must be environmentally conscious with the will to design great spaces and venues and have a sympathetic eye for materials, construction, function, and its users.

How you will learn

How you are assessed

Assessment is through 100% coursework. Therefore, you are expected to present your work visually and orally at key stages in the academic year; demonstrating an ability to react to verbal and written feedback from your module tutors. All design work must be submitted as a portfolio, with other modules submitted as report-based or written coursework. In the final year, you can write a comprehensive dissertation on a topic of your choice and deliver a complex design project as part of your portfolio.

Who will teach you

The Architecture team comprise an eclectic mix of individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences. We each have our personal research interests and are keen to explore the possibility of design with you, as you progress through the Interior Architecture and Venue Design course.