Interior Design

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Bachelor of Interior Design degree has been accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation since 2000 and has first professional degree status, making it the quickest path to becoming a professional interior designer.

The Bachelor of Interior Design program is a full-time, four-year undergrad focused on the built environment. The program curriculum is integrated and content is interwoven throughout all four years. The course content streams are organized into the following:

Studio: The heart of the program where students experiment, research, define, apply learning from other streams, and produce solutions to design problems. Interwoven and integrated into the Studio is the critical awareness of history, theories, and methodologies. The Studios mimic a design firm where feedback, communication, teamwork, and mentoring is encouraged. This is where students learn methods for creative and critical thinking.

Building Technologies: As in KPU’s Studio, students learn and synthesize the vocabulary, technical skills, and technical knowledge specific to interior architecture. Students become familiar with structure and building codes, circulation, drafting principles, and diagramming which are then integrated within Studio projects.

Design Communication: Seeing, thinking, and drawing (by hand or digitally) are interrelated. Students explore how design ideas are communicated visually to clients.

Site Studies: In order to learn essential observation skills, students travel outside of the classroom to see projects in progress or completed. This is also where students learn to measure and document, where history meets the contemporary, and where global differences in design inform their decisions.

Professional Practice: Even the most talented designers cannot launch a career without knowledge of office policies and procedures, business ethics, global issues, sustainability practices, and legal issues.

Liberal Education Electives: Graduates are culturally literate and can place their design practice in context by drawing on a thorough knowledge base and critical thinking skills.