Interior Design (MID)

Creative Project/MRP

The year-long Creative Project/MRP affords students the opportunity to pursue a topic of their interest that contributes to the interior design body of knowledge. Projects will be developed through phases informed by research that should broaden a student’s knowledge of the discipline by demonstrating design/research inquiry, theoretical underpinnings, and written reflection. A public jury composed of faculty and external reviewers will assess the final Creative Project/MRP.  This is a Milestone   

ID8100  Design Research Seminar I

This course will examine how objects, interiors, spaces and the built environment represent the transferal embodiment of ideas about culture, society, and identity. Interested in the historical and contemporary relationships of human society to objects and spaces - whether in their creation or use - this course will address ideas about style and substance as relating to the issues and concerns that define the design profession.  1 Credit 

ID8101  Design Research Seminar II

Design|Research Seminar II offers students the fundamentals to situate their design|research in historical contexts, with an emphasis on gathering visual, textual, and other resources, demonstrating historical awareness and present innovations. Students will draw on weekly seminar discussions to draft the literature review and/or precedent studies for their MRP.  1 Credit 

ID8110  Interior Design Studio 1

Interior Design Studio 1 introduces students to fundamental properties that inform studio-based problems such as program, scale, site, construction and representation. Specific elements introduced include enclosure, material awareness, design precedent, structures, human behaviour, ornament and details. These elements are coalesced and conveyed using analogue and digital drawings, along with workshop experience to produce three-dimensional models.  3 Credits 

ID8111  Interior Design Studio 2

Students undertake a design project in order to synthesize knowledge gained from the previous semester and concurrent courses addressing representation techniques, technology, construction and presentation. The design problem frames relevant themes in urban environments such as adaptive reuse, sustainability and mixed-use typologies. Together, these require students to address non-structural and construction techniques, place-making strategies, integrative technology, materiality and details. The unity of these attributes are represented using techniques that express a comprehensive project, from diagrams to construction documents.  3 Credits 

ID8112  Interior Design Studio 3

Students undertake a design project for a public program at the scale of a workplace environment or similar, in order to develop design strategies that address ergonomics, human factors, building systems, construction standards and codes, and atmospheric conditions of lighting, acoustics and thermal comfort. Students will synthesize these elements into a cohesive design solution with the integration of health, safety and welfare demonstrated through drawings, models and materials.  3 Credits 

ID8113  History of Interior Design

This course explores the history of domestic, commercial, and public interiors from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the present day. Students will explore interiors from the Victorian period, through early and mid-century modernist movements, to contemporary interiors around the world. This course emphasizes the many social, political, material, and technological influences that shape the interior.  1 Credit 

ID8114  Psychology and Design

Psychology and Design studies environmental psychology in the context of design practice. The course examines interaction between environments (built and natural) and human behaviours. Through discussions of research and illustrations from design considerations, the course incorporates fundamental environmental psychology theories into design practice. Particular emphasis will be placed on the impact of design principles on individuals' physical and mental health.  1 Credit  

ID8115  Professional Study

This course prepares students for the Practicum (Internship). Students will be expected to demonstrate knowledge of interior design firm practices. Topics such as small business management, marketing, promotion, presentations, fee methods, the scope of services, job descriptions, contracts, ethics, and accounting are reviewed. Project management contract documentation, budgeting, and scheduling will be further examined.  1 Credit 

ID8116  Professional Study Practicum

Field placements in design offices, and/or other valid experiences approved by the Interior Design program, will introduce students to hands-on work experience. In addition to applying academic skills and theoretical perspectives acquired in the program, students will learn to work effectively within the interior design profession. A total of 400 hours of field placement work experience is required for full credit. This course is normally completed during the summer term.  Pass/Fail

ID8201  Furniture Design

The bench is recognized as one of the most primitive forms of furniture through its numerous unique iterations of form and function in both ancient and contemporary cultures throughout the world. Sound structure, material usage, workable and elegant joinery, anthropometrics, ergonomics and excellent craft are important considerations in final grades. Classes are conducted in the wood shop and in studio. Activities will include demonstrations of techniques, lectures, presentations, desk reviews, group discussion, and one-on-one attention during the fabrication process.  1 Credit

ID8202  Textiles

This course exposes the student to the complex world of how textiles are designed and created for interior design application based on personal exploration of creating actual sample of a woven textile as well as print design samples. The student will investigate the various fibres used in textile creation, the meaning of the technical terms used in the textile industry and the implication to the environment of appropriate textile selection.  1 Credit

ID8203  Advanced 3D Visualization

In this course students will use innovative methods of three-dimensional manual and computer generated visualizations. A  variety of available graphic media and software products will be explored for the development of a presentation portfolio.   1 Credit

ID8204  History of Textiles

This course is an introduction to the study of textiles and fibres within the social, economic and political systems taken from a cross-cultural perspective. A broad history of textiles and textile production will be the primary focus of study with an in-depth review of Canadian textile history.  1 Credit

CD8310  Critical Approaches to Cultural Comm.

This course engages critical theories on race, Indigeneity, class, and gender to interrogate notions of cultural competence, crosscultural and intercultural communication that permeate the study and practice of communication. We ask: who determines culture? What social structures are reinforced in theories and practices of culturally competent communications? We also critically explore how traditional notions of culture are communicated and reinforced across various genres, media, and contexts.  1 Credit

CD8320  Media Lang: Forms, Approaches

This interdisciplinary course will investigate both common elements (visual and auditory narratives, methods of presentation/distribution, cultural roles) and specific attributes (individual characteristics and technologies) of contemporary media forms. Key developments in the evolution of media types and media languages will be explored in the larger context of understanding critical and theoretical issues associated with these forms and languages.  1 Credit

CD8330  Audiences and the Public

The course addresses the challenges concerning value creation and the effective design and delivery of media/mediated products and services from the perspective of the audience.  The course brings an interdisciplinary conceptual framework to bear on contemporary media and mediated consumption to investigate five principal ways of audiencing (citizen, spectator, customer, user and player) as well as the new audience sociability and several key issues around managing it: metrics, presumption, fans, transmedia, and business models.  1 Credit.

CD8340  Media Writing

Critical & Narrative Forms This course will explore issues of form, expression and viewpoint in writing for contemporary visual arts and media. The emphasis will be on essays and critical studies, but writing of summaries, proposals and analyses will also be covered. Traditions of literary and arts criticism form a basis for study of contemporary writing practices for both print and screen-based media. 1 Credit

PC8105  Proposal Writing, Grant Seeking and Fundraising 

This course provides a detailed introduction to the multidimensional processes of grant-seeking and the strategic principles of writing proposals for research funding and non-profit fundraising. Through a theoretical framework grounded in classical and modern rhetoric, meta-rhetoric, and narratology, students will explore how professional communicators construct polished arguments to generate support. From the perspective of both grant seekers and multidisciplinary peer-review audiences, students will learn how to identify and target government, foundation, and corporate funding sources/opportunities, to translate project goals and problem statements into clear objectives and hypotheses reflective of societal need, and to coordinate activities in the planning, development, structuring, and articulation of feasible, methodologically rigorous, and conceptually innovative research projects/proposals. Students will also gain practice in applying these techniques to fundraising initiatives and tasks including outreach and the cultivation of potential foundation and corporate donors. 1 Credit