Interior Architecture
At the intersection of architecture, conservation and design, Interior Architecture takes an innovative approach to the reuse and transformation of existing buildings. Studios focused on adaptive reuse are central to both the undergraduate and graduate programs. And unlike interior design and decoration, Interior Architecture aims to understand the design of buildings from inside out.
Degree programs
Emphasizing social and environmental responsibility, Interior Architecture’s BFA in Interior Studies teaches the spatial design skills you need to make transformative interventions for a wide variety of architectural forms.
Interior Architecture’s one-year post-professional MA program offers you a specialist education and pathway to professional practice.
Through a focus on the alteration of existing structures, the Adaptive Reuse MDes program offers deep understanding of and experience in the practice of interior interventions.
In providing a clear framework for designing within museum and other storytelling spaces, the Exhibition and Narrative Environments MDes equips you to create compelling, communicative interior interventions.
In the studio
In the studio, students use digital and manual means to research and recommend design alterations and renovations that give existing buildings new life. Studios focus on a wide range of approaches, from domestic to retail design, theater/production design to issues of preservation and conservation.
Student work
When Alina Vadera first graduated in 2011, she thought about moving to New York. But she reconsidered when she realized that her home country was where things were really happening in the world of architecture at the time. So she returned to her home city of Delhi to join Studio Lotus, where she completed a new retail space for fashion designer Gurav Gupta, among other projects. She is the founder of a-va design studio, which she has operated since 2013.
Throughout her career, Andrea Valentini has focused on incorporating unconventional industrial materials into inventive designs for furniture, lighting, handbags, accessories, wearable art and interior applications. Her Coosh egg chair has been recognized by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and her work has been included in the museum's triennial exhibitions. She continues to develop innovative new products and design sensual interiors and remains committed to creating art for everyday living.
Featured stories
The new hires round out RISD’s Architecture & Design, Experimental and Foundation Studies, Fine Arts and Liberal Arts divisions.
Inspired by the canyons of the southwest, Rappuhn’s design for a music school secured a $30,000 prize.
Students in a spring studio called Clay Matters conduct material investigations in support of their evolving thesis projects.
