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A Contemporary Approach to Interior Architecture Education by the ITU Interior Architecture Department

Nilufer Saglar Onay

ITU, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: Interior architecture is a rapidly developing discipline in the field of environmental design and architecture. During the recent decades it has gained additional importance because of the increased existing building stock and the need to adapt them to contemporary life. Parallel to this, the education activities focusing on the discipline of interior architecture have started to change and develop. This article discusses the importance of structured educational programs in the field of interior architecture by focusing on the example of ITU in both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Keywords: interior architecture, education program, institutional identity

Citation: Nilufer Saglar Onay, A Contemporary Approach to Interior Architecture Education by the ITU Interior Architecture Department. American Journal of Educational Research, 5 (7). 732-738. January 2017. doi:10.12691/education-5-7-6

1. Introduction

Interior architecture is shaped within the dynamics of architecture by a concentric focus on human experience. Therefore it has its own developing body of knowledge and professional field. A field, which is in close relation to human welfare, safety and health, also needs a very serious educational preparation.

This paper seeks for answers to important questions about the territory of the discipline, the importance of education and suggestions for future developments in education and practice:

• Why is interior architecture education necessary?

• How do programs differ from each other?

• How can education programs feed the future of the profession?

2. The importance of Interior Architecture Education

As specialization has started to gain importance during the second half of the 20th century, the main branch of architecture started to split into secondary branches like landscape architecture, interior architecture and industrial design. Recently, increasing the quality of the interiors we live in and evoking public consciousness about this necessity have become one of the most important missions of the discipline. While thinking about interior architecture as an individual discipline, the most important question is what interior architecture offers more than other design disciplines and what really differentiates it especially from architecture. While comparing interior architecture with other design disciplines, it can be regarded as the field, which is nearest to human body and senses. For Weinthal [1], architecture, body and objects all meet at the scale of the interior, where external forces find their way into the representation of the architectural interior through comparisons of body and world, objective and subjective, natural and artificial. Working with interiors means working at full scale in order to determine all aspects of objects surrounding the human body. Therefore interior space is intended to support and enhance human activity and experience. It also needs to have a very dynamic and flexible character because of the ever-changing needs of the society. In this sense interior architecture differs from other design disciplines and thus it has its own practical and academic territory.

In the nineteenth century, sculptors, painters and architects who were doing the decoration of interior spaces according to the properties of time, were taught to be the artists and craftsmen [2,3]. According to Demirbaş [3], the effects of modern thinking by the beginning of twentieth century, brought some new approaches to the activity of interior design besides decoration mostly in the United States. Pfeiffer [4]. discusses that interior space became an inseparable realistic part of the architectural structure in this period. Attention was moved from architecture to interior architecture and this can be seen as the birth of modern interior architecture profession in twentieth century. There was a big explosion in interior architecture by 1960's and thousands of interior designers and architects started to design and apply their projects. Between 1970 and 1980, because of the economical crisis and Japanese industrial revolution, some of the interior architects started to do conceptual, theoretical and academic studies. By this development, the education of interior architecture seriously became to be structured [3].

Another important question is about the boundaries and responsibilities of the profession. According to Abbott [5], a profession is identified by society and the public as having expertise based on specialized knowledge. The process of becoming a profession, or professionalization, is “how modern societies institutionalize expertise. The practitioners of a profession, in this case, interior design practitioners, are the ones who, through their practice or work, define and add to abstract knowledge that develop the body of knowledge, which, in turn, continues the development of the profession an iterative process [6]. Today interior architecture is recognised all over the world as a distinguished discipline and there are also serious studies conducted to define the body of knowledge of the profession. The most significant research about the body of knowledge of interior architecture has been the report completed in 2010 by Martin e Guerin. The purpose of this study was to update the interior design profession’s body of knowledge and document its relationship to health, safety, and welfare of the society as well as determining its jurisdictional knowledge boundaries. Therefore as the body of knowledge based on everyday practice is growing, the profession is clearly determining its boundaries and responsibilities. These enhancements also underline the necessity for well-structured education programs that can donate the upcoming professionals with the necessary educational requirements. In the field of interior architecture education, CIDA (Council for Interior Design Accreditation) is the most prepared and known organisation and it continuously works on defining and updating educational standards for interior architecture.

3. Different Understandings in Education Programs

Because of the differences in regional necessities, practice, regulations and distinctive backgrounds in different parts of the world, interior architecture educational programs vary greatly. While in some institutions, artistic aspects of the discipline are emphasized, in others technical and practical issues are considered to be more important. One of the most important factors that differentiate programs all over the world is about how the educational institutions are structured. In this sense even in the same country interior architecture programs are placed under different faculties with different backgrounds like architecture, engineering, design and art faculties. The overall view of the school identifies the main tendency of the programs.

In the United States most of the Interior architecture programs are structured under the faculties of Architecture and they give special importance to the integrity of environmental design programs. For example in the University of Florida the 2+2+2 system is applied. This approach begins with basic architecture education and then proceeds with specialised education on interiors, landscape or architecture and then finishes with more specialised and theoretical studies of master degree. This holistic approach can be regarded very positive as the students can evaluate the built environment as a whole.

In Asia Interior Architecture programs are mostly structured under design faculties and they focus on space and spatial design. In Germany we come across a different approach, which focus more on practical expertise rather than theoretical courses. In one of the schools, which apply this model, Fachhochscule Coburg students develop projects working on real materials and details through design studios. This approach makes it easier for them to recognise real problems and to get involved more easily in the practice of the discipline.

The Turkish case can be a good example concerning different views in interior design education. The institutionalized interior architecture education in Turkey was initiated in 1883 in Istanbul, during the Late Ottoman Era and the dominant model in the earlier years of the school has been Beaux-Arts [7]. Afterwards because of the influence of practitioners and academicians escaping from the Nazi regime to Turkey, the Bauhaus École started to become more dominant [8]. With the establishment of the Turkish Higher Education Council in 1957, a number of undergraduate programs that applied the American Education model were founded [9]. Beginning from 2000’s the number of education programs in interior architecture increased greatly. When we evaluate the structures and content of the programs we can observe a great multiplicity both in educational approaches and the placement of the programs. For the case of Turkey we can say that even today there exists different programs applying different models including Beaux-Arts, Bauhaus as well as the American models.

3.1. The Case of ITU

3.1.1. The Bachelor Degree

In ITU (Istanbul Technical University) the placement of interior architecture department under the Faculty of Architecture was an important determinant of the structure of the program and it was a role model in Turkey for many emerging programs in the field of interior architecture. During the preparation of the education model, the reconstruction of educational principles, which were applied in ITU starting from 1997, the structures and contents of the examined programs of interior architecture and the standards of FIDER (now CIDA) were considered [10]. The basic aim of the program was to lay the foundation of interior architecture education with architectural education and then focus on interior architecture scale [11]. In this respect, the first three semesters of the eight-semester program were jointly run by architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture departments, where the students of three departments enrolled to the same lectures all together [12].

In 2013 after 12 years of its foundation, the ITU bachelor program in interior architecture was revised. According to the revision report developed by all the members of the department, the vision of the department was redefined as to be a “center of excellency” in a triangle of education, research and practice. According to the report [13], the strategic decisions that were taken were defined as:

• To move to the “module system” for the application of theoretical and practical courses and get the advantages of the latest technology

• To apply the “integrated and thematic understanding” in studio education

• To achieve the integration of theoretical and practical courses

• To give the students the opportunity to specialize in certain fields by organising thematic elective course packages

• To determine clearly for every year all the skills, knowledge and competences to be achieved by the students

For the revision, the professional Standards of CIDA defined in 2014 [14] were taken into consideration to adapt the program to the contemporary international platform. The CIDA report was regarded as the most important document to be considered because it has been defined in order to support the ever-changing character of the discipline and enable graduates to adapt to a changing world. The standards of CIDA mainly define the basic components of an education program in the field of interior architecture. While revising the ITU Interior Architecture bachelor program, the content of all the existing courses were reviewed and various new courses were added to the program in order to fulfil all the standards that are defined below (Figure 1):

• Global Perspective for Design

• Human-centered Design

• Design Process

• Collaboration

• Communication

• Professionalism and Business Practice

• History

• Space and Form

• Color and Light

• Furniture, Fixtures, Equipment, and Finish Materials

• Environmental Systems

• Building Systems and Interior Construction

• Regulations

Figure 1. (Color online) The new curricula of ITU Department of Interior Architecture, Undergraduate Programme (Cordan, Gorgul, Numan & Cincik, 2014)

In June 2015, after the revised program has begun to be applied, another important revision took place as a result of the decision of the Education Commission of the ITU Faculty of Architecture. According to this important decision, all the departments under the Faculty of Architecture including the departments of architecture, urban planning, industrial design, interior architecture and landscape architecture would run the first 2 semesters together in the same studios. The aim of the revision was to form a platform of sharing and interaction between all disciplines defined under the basic field of architecture. In this sense students were expected to take part in the design process of real projects and focus on different environmental scales. The revision was applied starting from the 2015-2016 Fall Semester after the preparations of the education commissions of all departments.

Undoubtedly in design-oriented disciplines, the studio environment is the most important determinant and the most significant output of the education program. As mentioned above in ITU the first 2 semesters are concentrated on integrated studios that include all departments of the faculty. Later on the thematic studio understanding starts to be applied. After laying the foundation of interior architecture education through integrated studios, the program starts to focus on interior architecture scale during the third semester. As it can be seen in Table 1, in the ITU Department of Interior Architecture, different level studios all have different focus and theme.

Table 1. The thematic studio environment (The revised program of the I.T.U Interior Architecture Bachelor Program, 2013

The first Interior Architectural Project Studio is at the 4th semester and it basically aims to evaluate the human proximate environment. As the scale they work approaches much more to human scale, students are encouraged to work on models in order to feel human space relationship and concretize their proposals (Figure 2, Figure 3).

Figure 2. Examples for the first Interior Architectural Project Studio at the 4th semester, final models, 2014-2015 Spring Semester, Tutors: Nilufer Saglar Onay, Deniz Ayse Yazıcıoglu, Students: Cemre Erdal, Bahar Altın, Elif Cakir

Figure 3. Examples for the first Interior Architectural Project Studio at the 4th semester, final exhibition panels, 2014-2015 Spring Semester, Tutors: Nilufer Saglar Onay, Deniz Ayse Yazıcıoglu, Students: Taylan Can Tekeli, Bahar Altın, Nilhan Kaya, Secil Felekoglu

Interior Architecture Studio II focuses on design process related to corporate identity through proposals for commercial interiors. The proposals mostly concentrate on bigger public environments such as retail shops, cafeterias, restaurants, showrooms etc.

Interior Architecture Studio III concentrates on the historical environment through case studies and proposals on historic buildings. Figure 4 shows one of the recently developed projects by an Erasmus student in order to reuse a commercial building of the Ottoman Era as a public building for cultural interaction [15].

Figure 4. Examples for Interior Architecture Studio III at the 6th semester, part of final panels, 2014-2015 Fall Semester, Tutors: Nilufer Saglar Onay, Deniz Yazıcıoğlu, Student: Dominika Szczepińska (Erasmus student)

The final studio, Interior Architecture Studio IV aims to evaluate the design potentials of more complex and mix-use buildings. The students try to create solutions for much bigger interior environments by evaluating user needs. Figure 5 shows the design proposal concerning an experimental office environment developed for an entire floor in one of the multi-storey office buildings at the business centre of Istanbul.

Figure 5. Example for Interior Architecture Studio IV at the 7th semester, final panel, 2013-2014 Fall Semester, Tutors: Nilufer Saglar Onay, Hasan Sener, Student: Erol Kalmaz

The last studio, graduation project differs from the others in terms of the studio experience. In this step, the students develop design proposals on their own. They only have access to the remarks of the jurors during the preliminary juries and try to convey all their previous experiences within their final project.

3.1.2. The Master’s Program_IMIAD

The IMIAD- International Masters Program in Interior Architecture Design is one of the first internationally orientated postgraduate degrees in interior architecture and it was launched according to the Sixth Framework Program of European Commission, rooting from the Curriculum Development principle. The structure of the program is determined with partner schools each of which contributes to the program with their own emphases and competencies. Building on an undergraduate degree, graduates receive the qualification of International Master of Interior Architectural Design.

The IMIAD program has been launched by Fachhochschule für Technik Stuttgart in 2005 and ITU has joined the program in 2006. Other recent partner institutions are Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland, Lahti Polytechnic in Finland, SUPSI_Scuola Universiteria Professionale Della Svizzera in Switzerland and CEPT_The Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University in India. The basic aim of the program is defined as sharing experiences through an interdisciplinary and international education platform and learning about professional conditions and cultural environments abroad as well as expanding working opportunities out of national borders.

In the structure of IMIAD both the student and teaching staff are seen as important contributors to the international interaction platform. IMIAD tries to put forth the idea of a new standardization in interior architecture education, as an interactive platform for knowledge distribution, by keeping the individual diversities of each institution as the basis of cultural variety for the multiplied interpretations in education [16].

The education program of IMIAD is consisted of four semesters. The students start the program in their home institutions, and then continue the educational program with the exchange semester that they pass in one of the partner schools. They have the possibility to choose the institution they want according to their field of specialization as every institution has expertise in different fields. At the beginning of the third semester students from all the partner schools come together for "The Project Month”, an annual event of IMIAD Program. The project month is run as a workshop that lasts generally 10 to 15 days and students work on a common theme to develop ideas in groups. The IMIAD annual workshop appears as the most important academic component of the program as it unites students and teaching staff from different cultures and backgrounds. After the project month, the students turn back to their home institutions and work on their third and last project proposals. Successively during the fourth semester they work on their thesis at their home institutions.

ITU is identified in the IMIAD Program with its special focus on cultural studies and architecture oriented understanding. During the workshops organised by ITU, cultural aspects of interior environments are deeply discussed throughout project-based processes and project studies mostly focus on the historic environment. Correspondingly during the second semester, which is run together with students from partner institutions, students’ understanding on interior environments is enriched by project studies, seminars and courses focusing on cultural and environmental studies.

During the last semester when the students develop their thesis, they are encouraged to built a concrete relationship between theory and practice. In this sense, thesis studies concentrate on project based research and proposals. The thesis is expected to reflect all the theoretical and practical knowledge gained through the experiences during the semester in partner institutions, international workshops and all other courses. But in ITU the most important point of departure for thesis studies is the project proposal, which is developed in the 3rd semester. According to the ITU approach, thesis studies, which discuss theoretical knowledge in relation with a design proposal, can make important practical contributions to contemporary problems in interiors [16]. Especially in the field of interior architecture where research and theoretical studies need extra consideration, thesis studies can be regarded as important sources that can contribute to the body of knowledge of the discipline.

The IMIAD Program can be seen as an international sharing platform guided by the collaborations and interactions of the partner institutions.

4. How Can Education Programs Feed the Future of the Profession?

The future of the profession lies in education. In the world of emerging technologies, it is essential to estimate interior architecture education as a shifting and living structure that needs to be updated continually. Regarding the future of the profession and the structure of education programs, the most important issues to be discussed can be regarded as:

• Courses, activities focusing on collaborative interdisciplinary design practices.

• Emphasis on culture-specific aspects

• Strengthening the unique role of interior design as the follower of life.

Today in design practice specialization is very important but on the other hand a designer need to be able to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. In this sense they need to have a broader understanding of environmental design based on the collaboration of all disciplines that contribute to the design process. According to CIDA Standards 2017 [18], students should be able to understand teamwork structures, leadership models and dynamics of collaboration in order to develop design solutions. In this sense education programs can organise different activities to involve students in such interdisciplinary design environments. Just like the ITU case discussed before, design studios can be structured in order to create solutions for real world problems with students from different departments or faculties. This understanding can create consciousness about the value and nature of integrated design practices.

According to CIDA Standards 2017 [18], Interior designers also need to have a global view and consider social, cultural, economic, and ecological contexts in all aspects of their work. Supporting this vision, interior design programs need to provide exposure to the current and relevant events that are shaping contemporary society and the world, exposure to a variety of cultural norms and opportunities for developing multicultural awareness. In this sense international platforms of institutional interaction have the potential make vital contributions to the discipline. Understanding different cultures, different ways of living, getting to know different views in design practice and education can create a profound awareness about the effect of cultural context on design.

According to Atasoy and others (2007), organizations all over the world gather people and institutions about interior architecture but most of these serve to unite professionals more than educators and students. To understand diverse cultures and approaches more profoundly and to locate themselves more specifically in the field of interior architecture, educational institutions need to build up partnerships so that they can work together and come up with remarkable outcomes (Atasoy, Saglar Onay, Gorgul & Numan, 2007). International platforms of sharing and interaction between programs developed in different cultural contexts like the IMIAD program can contribute greatly to all the partners.

With the effect of technology, societal changes and globalization today’s world is changing more rapidly than ever. Interior design supports the ever-changing dynamics of life because of its relatively high temporality when compared to architecture. As ways of living, needs and preferences change, architectural space is to be interpreted by the interior designer. In this sense the power of interior design arises from its intimate relationship with human scale, body and senses. Therefore education programs need to focus on the role of interior design as a follower of life, which differentiates it from other design disciplines. In this way the need for interior design will be recognised by a broader public.

5. Conclusion

Standards developed by organizations like CIDA are not developed to standardize interior architecture education but they are developed in order to define a common ground that will serve to develop a well-structured program that embraces all necessary issues about the discipline. In this sense educational programs need to respect this common ground while differentiating themselves from others by focusing on culture specific aspects. Such an understanding has the potential to enrich education programs giving each of them a context-based identity. Moreover interaction and sharing between these institutions with different cultural backgrounds and identities can feed the platforms of discussion, and the discipline will gain a more multi-dimensional and enriched character regarding research, practice and education.

References

[1]   | Weinthal, L. Introduction In Toward a New Interior: An Anthology of Interior Design Theory, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2011.
[2]   | Tate, A. & Smith, C. R. Interior Design in the 20th Century. Harper & Row, New York, 1986.
[3]   | Demirbaş, O. The Relation Of Learning Styles And Performance Scores Of The Students In Interior Architecture Education, PhD Thesis, Bilkent University, Institute of Economics And Social Sciences, Ankara, 2001.
[4]   | Pfeiffer, B.B. Frank Lloyd Wright. Nurnberg: Benedikt Taschen. 1991.
[5]   | Abbott, A. The system of professions: An essay on the division of expert labor. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1988.
[6]   | Martin, C. & Guerin, D. The Interior Design Profession’s Body Of Knowledge and its Relationship to People’s Health, Safety, and Welfare, University of Minnesota. Access date: April 2016, http://www.idbok.org/PDFs/IDBOK_2010.pdf. 2010.
[7]   | Demir, A. Arşivdeki Belgeler Işığında Güzel Sanatlar Akademisi’nde Yabancı Hocalar, MSGSU Yayınları, Istanbul, 2008.
[8]   | Gülmez, N., Görgül, E. In the Search of a Place of Its Own: A Critical History of Interior Architecture and Design Education in Turkey (forthcoming article). 2013.
[9]   | Cordan, O., Gorgul, E., Numan, B. & Cincik, B. Curriculum Development In Interior Architecture Education: ITU Case. ITU A|Z 11(1), 185-197, 2014.
[10]   | Ertürk, Z. & Şener, H. İç Mimarlık Eğitiminde Model Arayışları: İTÜ Örneği, Arkitekt, 504, 48-61, 2006.
[11]   | Sener, H. & Saglar Onay, N., Interior Architecture Education and an Evaluation of the ITU Model. In Proceedings of Architectural Education Forum 3. Istanbul: ITU Faculty of Architecture, 2006.
[12]   | Anon. The preliminary program of the I.T.U Architecture Faculty Interior Architecture Bachelor Program, Report, Istanbul, 2001.
[13]   | Anon. The revised program of the I.T.U Architecture Faculty Interior Architecture Bachelor Program, Report, Istanbul. (2013).
[14]   | Council for Interior Design Accreditation. Professional Standards 2014. Access date: January 2015. http://accredit-id.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Professional-Standards-2014.pdf, 2014.
[15]   | Saglar Onay, N. & Yazıcıoglu D. A. Functional Continuity in Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings: Evaluating a Studio Experience. American Journal of Educational Research 3(6) 674-682, 2015.
[16]   | Saglam, N., Önal, P. & Saglar Onay, N. IMIAD Programı Tez Çalişmalarının Bütünsel Eğitim Süreci Bağlamında Metodolojik Olarak Irdelenmesi. In Proceedings of National Congress of Interior Architecture Graduate Education. Istanbul: ITU Faculty of Architecture, 2015.

[17]  
Atasoy, A., Saglar Onay, N., Gorgul, E. & Numan, B. Experiences and Observations from the IMIAD San Bernardino Workshop: Seeking an International Platform for Sharing Interior Architecture Education Knowledge. In Proceedings of Connected 2007 International Conference on Design Education, University Of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007.

[18]   | Council for Interior Design Accreditation. 2017. Professional Standards 2017. Access date: July 2017. https://accredit-id.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/II.-Professional-Standards-2017.pdf.