Interior Architecture and Design with Foundation Year

Interior Architecture and Design is a discipline that places people at the centre of its inquiry, asking how the internal environments where we live, work, learn and spend our leisure time can be designed to support human flourishing. We spend the vast majority of our lives indoors, and the spaces we inhabit shape our experience, health, behaviour and relationships in ways that are often more significant than we recognise. Interior architecture and design addresses this seriously, combining creative vision with knowledge of how spaces are used, how light and material affect mood and function, and how buildings can be adapted and reimagined across changing needs and times.

At Birmingham City University this four-year full-time degree with Foundation Year begins with a year that builds your design foundations, academic skills and practical knowledge before you enter the main programme. The foundation year provides a supported entry point into demanding design education, ensuring you are well prepared for the creative and intellectual challenge that follows. Throughout the degree you will develop your ability to design spaces that serve the people who inhabit them, developing both creative confidence and technical knowledge of construction, materials and building systems.

Graduates from Interior Architecture and Design degrees go on to careers in interior design studios, architectural practices, retail and hospitality design consultancies, furniture and product companies, and heritage and conservation organisations. Others find roles in set and exhibition design, property development and management, and sustainability and adaptive reuse consultancy. The spatial thinking, creative problem-solving and professional design skills the degree develops also transfer well into product design, urban design and related creative fields.

Postgraduate study in interior design, architecture, spatial design or design research is an option for those wishing to develop their practice further.