Master of Interior Design (MID)

Two- and Three-year Tracks

Aaron Gensler, MArch

Chair

Eric Olsen, MArch

Acting Chair

Christoph Korner, MArch

Program Director

Introduction

The Master of Interior Design (MID) program offers an education in spatial inquiry that embeds the interior design discipline within the essential mission toward reimagining the human conditions in the built environment in a time of great change and uncertainty. In so doing, the program adds criticality to the profession, scholarship, and academic research while generating new knowledge and emerging ideas. The MID program positions interior design as a unique body of knowledge, with a distinct discourse, canon, and set of methodologies, filtered through the lenses of art, criticism, and theory. As contemporary architectural practice continues to focus on issues of technology, technique, urbanism, and other aspects of exteriority, the MID program looks to advance the role of the human experience in this discourse, and to argue for the social, cultural, material, sensorial, and communicative realms of design.

In order to develop new ways of seeing, designing, and building, students explore real and imagined environments that are meaningful to the human existence and well-being. The program explores how the physical and emotional merge to create interior spaces infused with aesthetic and cultural relevance. Physical constructs of the visual arts, product design, furniture design, and architecture commingle with the social sciences and the humanities. Using three- dimensional models, computer rendering, and drawing, students explore the various disciplines that collectively define interior design. Students gain expertise in developing the essential elements of interior design—such as form, color, lighting, finishes, and furnishings—along with appropriate building technology, material science, and behavioral factors to create spatial experiences of the mind and body. In a field of rapidly changing technology and ideas, the program provides students with both the professional and intellectual tools necessary to negotiate the exciting and future cultural and social landscapes.

Woodbury University’s MID program provides students with a curriculum that is critical and relevant. This agile program allows students to actively participate in the crafting of their education, to imbue each course with their own critical approach, and to specialize in their own professional pursuits. Student involvement fosters methodological diversity and ensures that the program will evolve and adapt with each new cohort.

Accreditation

The Master of Interior Design is designated a STEM program by WASC (WSCUC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Student Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). All international students enrolled in the program can apply for a 24-month extension of their post-completion Optional Practice Training (OPT) for a total of 36 months.

The department will be applying for Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) accreditation. Both the two- and three-year tracks are considered terminal degrees.

The department may require two- and three-year track students to take additional preparatory groundwork courses before beginning studio in the fall semester.

The Woodbury University Master of Interior Design (MID) professional degree program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and is designed to meet the California educational requirements for Interior Design certification in California. Woodbury University’s MID program also prepares graduates to complete both the NCIDQ and the IDEX exams. Though our program meets the educational requirements in all 50 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and Canadian provinces, students who wish to practice in a location outside of California may or may not have additional non-educational requirements to fulfill prior to applying for a certificate or registration status in that location. Prior to enrollment, prospective students are strongly encouraged to review the Master of Interior Design (MID) professional licensure webpage to determine whether our MID program meets the educational requirements for certification/registration in the location(s) they wish to practice. Woodbury University would like to assist prospective and current students with navigating this process. Please contact Admissions at admissions@woodbury.edu or 818-252-5221 for help.

Mission

Embedded in the School of Architecture, the Master of Interior Design program seeks to advance the study and practice of the human-centric, design-thinking methodologies and approaches toward defining and solving real-world problems of the human condition in the built environment domain.

Licensure

Additional Learning Opportunities

The Interior Design courses provide a theoretical basis and practical skills needed for conceptualization and visual communication of interior spaces that are meaningful to the human experience and well-being. The Interior Design program offers interdisciplinary engagement with allied programs in the School of Architecture and across the Woodbury campus. The School of Architecture offers five programs in addition to Interior Design: Architecture, Design Computation, Construction Management, Sustainable Practices, and Computer Science–Media Arts. In addition, opportunities to incorporate courses in gaming, film, animation, psychology, graphic design, fashion, and business expand the potential for collaboration and exploration.

Technology and Computer Requirements

Students in the Interior Design program need to have the use of a laptop or desktop computer that can run multiple graphic software programs. The computer programs that are necessary to commence the first year of the program are: Revit, Rhinoceros, Adobe Suite, and Microsoft Office Suite. The licenses for these programs are available through the Woodbury University IT Department. Due to the fact that some of the courses are offered online, students are also required to have a working camera and microphone as part of their computer setup. For qualified students, loaner laptops are available in addition to access to computer labs on the Woodbury campus.

Program Learning Outcomes

Students gain the ability to engage in the analysis, understanding, and development of the built interior environment as a viable object of critical inquiry evidenced through design and research processes, written communication, proficient and multivalent visual communication, quantitative analysis, and historical research.

Students gain the ability to analyze, understand, critique, and develop space as a social and cultural construction, as evidenced in the development of programmatic, behavioral, ethical, and collaborative strategies for the built environment within different scalar contexts and various professional settings.

Students gain the ability to analyze, understand, critique, and develop interior spaces that elicit human response through the manipulation and enhancement of the sensual, as evidenced through the design of interior environments that illustrate and elicit experiential responses.

Students gain the ability to analyze, understand, critique, and develop interior spaces through the techniques of innovative building processes, as evidenced through quantitative reasoning, systems integration, and production expertise.

Students gain the ability to act in professional and academic environments with the highest ethical and cooperative character, as evidenced in the increasing ability to self- direct research and engage in team activities.

Students will develop comprehensive critical thinking skills necessary for multidisciplinary approaches to problem-solving issues dealing with interior environments.

The program will provide students with learning experiences that incorporate professional values, practices, and business procedures.

Students will develop design skills as a way of researching and solving problems.

Students will develop a comprehensive set of skills that focus on design problems regarding the human inhabitation of interior spaces.

Students will develop quantifiable visual, verbal, and oral communication skills necessary to express research, analysis, and expression of design solutions.

Students will develop skills necessary for understanding and representing the technical art and regulations of building and designing interior spaces.

Assessment Process

Portfolio Requirements

Individuals holding baccalaureate degrees in any discipline may enter the Master of Interior Design three-year track, while individuals holding baccalaureate degrees in Interior Architecture, Interior Design, Environmental Arts, or Architecture are eligible to enter the Master of Interior Design two- year track.

To be placed into the two-year track, students must submit a portfolio of their undergraduate work and any work product obtained through work experience that they have generated. For the three-year track, students need to submit an assemblage of evidence demonstrating their skills and techniques in drawing and composition using freehand and software tools and media.

Formative Assessment Experiences

Formative assessment occurs within each studio and is the foundation of the Woodbury School of Architecture studio education. As they develop their projects, students receive regular, rigorous, and critical feedback in small groups, larger groups, and via individual desk critiques. They also provide rigorous and critical feedback to their peers as well as to their own progress and process.

Summative Assessment Experiences

The two-year and three-year track curricula have two points for assessing summative student learning: review of the thesis proposal at the end of the thesis preparation seminar (IDES 645, Criticism 4), and review of the capstone graduate thesis (IDES 660, Studio 6: Thesis). While these projects provide summative measures of student learning, a review allows the faculty to gauge the effectiveness of the curriculum and the extent to which the core MID curriculum builds on and integrates the supporting electives in a student’s chosen focus.

Program Specific Academic Standards

Design Studio Academic Standards

Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher for every two consecutive design studios to continue in the design studio sequence. A student whose two- studio GPA drops below 3.0 must repeat one of the two as necessary to achieve the minimum GPA prior to enrollment in the subsequent studio.

Satisfactory Studio Progress Policy

Any student who does not pass a studio with a grade of “C” or higher after enrolling in it three times is subject to dismissal from the program.

Repeated Courses

A student may remediate a course for the purpose of improving the grade. However, the student only has one chance to repeat a course in which they have received a passing grade. If a passing grade was not achieved, then a student may repeat the course until they do achieve a passing grade. Financial aid cannot be applied to courses repeated voluntarily.

Completion Time Limits

Part-time graduate students may receive an additional two years to complete their degree objective.

The graduate academic progress and grading policy is administered by the department and the Registrar with Office of Student Development support.

Curriculum Summary

Program Major Curriculum

Students in the two-year MID track study for five semesters; students in the three-year MID track study for seven semesters. Each semester has at its core a six-unit studio. The summer semester before the final year of study is devoted to Fieldwork; this studio requires both research and design. Students take professional and elective courses in addition to the studio during fall and spring semesters. The final spring semester centers on a graduate thesis studio culminating in a public thesis review.

Two-year MID students take a minimum of 63 units in their graduate studies, and three-year students take a minimum of 93 units in their graduate studies; for both programs, at least 12 of the units are elective.

Three-Year Track

Unit Type (UT)	Number of Units (U)
Major (MA)	84
Unrestricted Elective* (UE)	9
Minimum Total Units Required	93

Two-Year Track

Unit Type (UT)	Number of Units (U)
Major (MA)	54
Unrestricted Elective* (UE)	9
Minimum Total Units Required	63

*Unrestricted Electives must be graduate-level courses

Suggested Sequence of Courses

Three-Year Track

First Year

Fall Semester

IDES 616	Criticism 1: Fieldwork Southern CA	3
IDES 610	Studio 1: New Frontier of Space	6
IDES 600	Visualization 1: Making Technique	3
IDES 624	Figuring Space 1: Materiality and Making	3
____ ___	Unrestricted Elective*	3
Total Credit Hours:		18

Type:

IDES 616, IDES 610, IDES 600, and IDES 624: MA.

Unrestricted Elective: UE.

Spring Semester

IDES 617	Criticism 2: Declaring the Canon	3
IDES 620	Studio 2: Synthesizing Complexity	6
IDES 605	Visualization 2: Analytical Construction	3
IDES 625	Figuring Space 2: Code Analysis	3
Total Credit Hours:		15

Type:

IDES 617, IDES 620, IDES 605, and IDES 625: MA.

Second Year

Fall Semester

IDES 618	Criticism 3: Rewriting the Canon	3
IDES 640	Studio 3: Pathways and Modalities	6
IDES 606	Visualization 3: Adv. Drawing and Model	3
IDES 626	Figuring Space 3: Impact and Implication	3
Total Credit Hours:		15

Type:

IDES 618, IDES 640, IDES 606, and IDES 626: MA.

Spring Semester

IDES 645	Criticism 4: Methodological Slant	3
IDES 6__	Criticism Elective	3
IDES 6__	Visualization Elective	3
IDES 632	Practice 1: Ethics and the Profession	3
____ ___	Unrestricted Elective*	3
Total Credit Hours:		15

Type:

IDES 645, IDES (Criticism Elective), IDES (Visualization Elective), and IDES 632: MA.

Unrestricted Elective: UE.

Summer Semester

IDES 647	Studio 4: Fieldwork	6
Total Credit Hours:		6

Type:

IDES 647: MA.

Third Year

Fall Semester

IDES 619	Criticism 5: Thesis Preparation	3
IDES 650	Studio 5: Convergence	6
IDES 633	Practice 2: Commentary on Interior Des	3
Total Credit Hours:		12

Type:

IDES 619, IDES 650, and IDES 633: MA.

Spring Semester

IDES 660	Studio 6: Thesis	6
IDES 634	Practice 3: Collaboration	3
____ ___	Unrestricted Elective*	3
Total Credit Hours:		12

Type:

IDES 660 and IDES 634: MA.

Unrestricted Elective: UE.

Suggested Sequence of Courses

Two-Year Track

First Year

Fall Semester

IDES 618	Criticism 3: Rewriting the Canon	3
IDES 640	Studio 3: Pathways and Modalities	6
IDES 606	Visualization 3: Adv. Drawing and Model	3
IDES 626	Figuring Space 3: Impact and Implication	3
____ ___	Unrestricted Elective*	3
Total Credit Hours:		18

Type:

IDES 618, IDES 640, IDES 606, and IDES 626: MA.

Unrestricted Elective: UE.

Spring Semester

IDES 645	Criticism 4: Methodological Slant	3
IDES 6__	Criticism Elective	3
IDES 6__	Visualization Elective	3
IDES 632	Practice 1: Ethics and the Profession	3
____ ___	Unrestricted Elective*	3
Total Credit Hours:		15

Type:

IDES 645, IDES (Criticism Elective), IDES (Visualization Elective), and IDES 632: MA.

Unrestricted Elective: UE.

Summer Semester

IDES 647	Studio 4: Fieldwork	6
Total Credit Hours:		6

Type:

IDES 647: MA.

Second Year

Fall Semester

IDES 619	Criticism 5: Thesis Preparation	3
IDES 650	Studio 5: Convergence	6
IDES 633	Practice 2: Commentary on Interior Des	3
Total Credit Hours:		12

Type:

IDES 619, IDES 650, and IDES 633: MA.

Spring Semester

IDES 660	Studio 6: Thesis	6
IDES 634	Practice 3: Collaboration	3
____ ___	Unrestricted Elective*	3
Total Credit Hours:		12

Type:

IDES 660 and IDES 634: MA.

Unrestricted Elective: UE.