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Interior Design (BFA)
Overview
VCUarts Qatar’s BFA in Interior Design is a studio-based program where students engage in interdisciplinary, critical, and hands-on design approaches that explore the built environment. Using space, form, materials, color, and light, students in this program imagine and re-imagine human-centric living and working spaces.
Interior Design continues to evolve as a specialized profession where practitioners offer aesthetic and functional solutions that focus on users’ experience of space, functionality, health, safety, and welfare, promoting sustainability, human equity, and diversity, and triggering social change.
The interior design program leading to the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design is accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation,www.accredit-id.org, 206 Cesar E. Chavez Ave SW, Suite 350, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503.
The CIDA-accredited program prepares students for entry-level interior design practice, for advanced study, and to apply for membership in professional interior design organizations. The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design granted by Virginia Commonwealth University School of The Arts in Qatar meets the educational requirement for eligibility to sit for the National Council for Interior Design Qualification Examination (NCIDQ Exam).
For more information about NCIDQ Exam eligibility visit: https://www.cidq.org/eligibility-requirements.
Why Study Interior Design?
Interior designers are essential to the architecture, engineering and construction sectors to design user-centric spaces. Their solid understanding of construction and building systems helps them create practical and appealing spaces where people can live, work, and play.
The program is multi-disciplinary, where art, architecture, design, psychology and technology intersect. Students on this pathway study the theoretical and practical elements of interior design alongside environmental and behavioral sciences, including sustainability, communication, codes and regulations, as well as business practices.
What skills will you gain in this program?
Students will learn to:
- Adhere to best practices in ethical and sustainable interior design processes.
- Develop a sound knowledge of environmental psychology, building codes and regulations, technical properties of materials, historic precedents, and the business and strategic marketing of design.
- Research, conceptualize, and create two and three-dimensional design illustrations, both manually and using technology.
- Collaborate with clients from various cultural and professional backgrounds (including designers, architects, engineers, contractors, and manufacturers) and work with specialists in fields as varied as lighting, landscape, graphic, carpentry, and textiles, to name a few.
- Gain the leadership skills necessary to lead design teams from the early stages of a design project through to its installation as a finished interior space. These skills are necessary when working in teams or opening your own design firm.
- More learning outcomes can be found here.
Curriculum
All new students who choose a BFA pathway first need to complete a one-year Art Foundation program. In addition to this, all our graduates complete a Liberal Arts and Sciences core curriculum. High-achieving students will also be invited to follow our Honors Program to supplement and enhance their education.
The culmination of a student’s BFA journey is VCUarts Qatar’s annual BFA + MFA Exhibition where projects created by the graduating class are showcased and celebrated with the wider community.
For further information on the program’s structure, please visit the links below:
Some of the program’s modules
IDES 422 – Building Systems
Make decisions that impact structural, electrical, and mechanical components based on a solid understanding of construction and building systems.
IDES 312 – Advanced Interior Graphics II
Use technology to effectively research, design, and fit out spaces.
IDES 330 – The Business of Design
Develop the communication skills needed to work effectively in multi-disciplinary environments and professional interior design offices.
Career Options
Upon graduation, most of our students enter the industry or pursue graduate programs in related fields.
Our students have been hired by:
Qatar Museums, Qatar Airways, Arab Engineering Bureau, Blueprint, Doha Film Institute, Film House, Katara Hospitality, Qatari Diar, ASHGHAL, Qatar Foundation, FROMM, Msheireb Properties, Doha Design District, and HOK (one of the largest architecture firms in the US), among others.
Our People
Mohammad Suleiman
Chair of Interior Design, Associate Professor
Dr. Haithem A. El-Hammali
Associate Professor
Dr. Johan Granberg
Associate Professor
Liam Colquhoun
Associate Professor
Matthew
Holmes-Dallimore
Associate Professor
Simone Carena
Associate Professor
Sherin Karawia
Assistant Professor
Jennifer Davis
Adjunct Faculty
Hagar Farag Ataallah
Adjunct Faculty
Student Experience
BFA Interior Design in 30 seconds
Internship Opportunities
Internships are a great way for students to gain hands-on experience in a professional design environment. VCUarts Qatar’s internships form part of the core curriculum and all students are expected to undertake a 120-hour placement, often in their Senior Year. Internships are generally unpaid but may lead to sponsorship or employment after graduation. All placements are managed by the faculty internship.
International Field Trips
The travel study program focuses on providing international learning opportunities and professional growth experiences in interior design and architecture. The program includes a yearly field trip where students and faculty visit major centers of design outside of Qatar for one week.
Visiting International And Regional Designers And Industry Experts
Abdullah Al-Emadi, Ahmad Najjar, Cynthia Batir, Dr. Abdellah Karroum, Laura Barlow, Giampiero Peia, Martha Nasazzi, Hamoda Youssef, Ibrahim Jaidah, Lejla Niksic, Mayes Al-Thani, Modesty St. John, Mohammed Nasser Al Baker, Paolo Cassina, Yausif Al-Baker, Sandra Sainz Shaikha Al-Mahmoud, Hanouf Mohammed Al-Mana, Shaikha Al-Sulaiti Oliver Baxter, Esra Al-Kazem, Dorota Nazarewicz, Shraddha Aryal, Dr. Fodil Fadli.
Meet our Alumni
Alumna’s Collaboration with Newly Launched Design Company Earns Her a Spot at Milan Design Week
In this conversation, Maryam Faraj AlSuwaidi, who currently works as an interior designer at Qatar National Bank, talks about her collaboration with FROMM., her inspiration behind the furniture designs and what participating at an internationally renowned design fair means to her.
A VCUarts Qatar Alumna Takes Sustainability to the Next Level
Three hundred and eighty-four egg crates – that’s what went into a piece of furniture by Interior Design alumna Nada Raafat Elkharashi, who created a unique public seating structure in response to Qatar Museum’s (QM) open call on the theme ‘Reuse, Recycle and Reduce’.
Vision Statement
For the department of Interior Design to be distinguished for quality education that promotes diversity, innovation, sustainability, and collaboration, that caters for the needs of a ‘glocal’ society.
Mission Statement
The mission of the interior design department is to nurture a culturally diverse learning and teaching experience. While imparting evidence-based design, the department underscores innovation, collaboration, and sustainability principles that address the needs of the ‘glocal’ contexts.
Program Goals
- To encourage critical thinking, exploration, and independent thinking that will lead to innovation and diversity of thought and expression even beyond graduation.
- To expose students to a design process that combines the intellectual process of creating with the physical process of making.
- To align the curriculum with professional interior design standards and practices in order to impart core competencies needed by graduating interior design students in the middle east.
- To encourage students to value and understand their own design culture, while examining design knowledge and precedents of other cultures.
- To partner with the design industry and stay current with the profession through educational and research initiatives.
- To foster leadership (?)and prepare our graduates to join a relatively young design community in which they have the opportunity to become the knowledge leaders.
- To nurture ties to our alumni and encourage their life-long learning.
CIDA Student Data
It typically takes a full-time student taking approximately 15 credits per semester four years to complete the degree program. The following data was collected using institutional records and an alumni survey that was administered after each class graduated.
Student Achievement & Aggregate Data
Surveying the Class of 2023 (74% response rate) & AY 2022-23:
Job Placement: Of the respondents – 57% of the students who graduated in May 2023 were part of the design profession within one year of graduation.
Graduation Rates: 85% of the students from the class of 2023 graduated within four years.
Retention/Attrition: 100% of the students completing the 2021-22 academic year returned for the 2022-23 academic year.
Surveying the Class of 2022 (79% response rate) & AY 2021-22:
Job Placement: Of the respondents – 87% of the students who graduated in May 2022 were part of the design profession within one year of graduation.
Graduation Rates: 78% of the students from the class of 2023 graduated within four years.
Retention/Attrition: 89% of the students completing the 2020-21 academic year returned for the 2021-22 academic year with an attrition rate of 11%
Surveying the Class of 2021 (56% response rate) & AY 2020-21:
Job Placement: Of the respondents – 69% of the students who graduated in May 2021 were part of the design profession within one year of graduation. 8% secured an artist in residency.
Graduation Rates: 79% of the students from the class of 2021 graduated within four years.
Retention/Attrition: 100% of the students completing the 2019-20 academic year returned for the 2020-21 academic year.
Surveying the Class of 2020 (79% response rate) & AY 2019-2020:
Job Placement: Of the respondents – 93% of the students who graduated in May 2020 were part of the design profession within one year of graduation. 13% were furthering their studies in graduate school.
Graduation Rates: 89% of the students from the class of 2020 graduated within four years.
Retention/Attrition: 98% of the students completing the 2018-19 academic year returned for the 2019-20 academic year with an attrition rate of 2%.