The Interior Architecture and Design program encompasses two concentrations: Interior Architecture and Interior Products & Retailing. Our faculty bring international industry experiences and professional credentials in sustainability and design for health and wellness to class projects and working with clients on real-world projects. Both concentrations involve problem-solving, experiential learning, curated study abroad experiences, and industry internships with leading firms. The program holds accreditations by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) and the National Association of Schools of Art & Design (NASAD).
Undergraduates may apply to the major as entering first-year students, second-bachelor candidates, transfer students, and those deciding to change majors at any point in their academic careers. First-year students in the Interior Architecture and Design major can declare the Interior Products and Retailing Concentration during new student orientation, but cannot declare the Interior Architecture Concentration until the spring semester after they have progressed through the Degree Advancement Design Scenario.
Learning Objectives
Students in the Interior Architecture and Design major will develop core knowledge and skills as a part of their concentration area. There are two concentration areas:
- The Interior Architecture Concentration prepares students to become interior design professionals. Students will learn to develop creative design solutions for building interiors that are environmentally sustainable, research-informed, and promote user health and well-being. Students are required to participate in the Degree Advancement Design Scenario.
- The Interior Products and Retailing Concentration prepares students to become design specialists with business acumen building deep knowledge of interior products focusing on textiles, furnishings, and/or lighting. Students will develop a holistic industry view of marketing analysis, life cycle, and merchandising of interior products and furnishings.
Students will learn the applications of history and culture; space and form; color and light; fixtures, equipment, and finish materials; environmental and building systems and interior construction; technology; and regulations.
Students will also demonstrate qualities of professionalism and business practice that contribute to the industry and advance the value of their knowledge to interior built environments. These processes include but are not limited to critical and creative thinking, communication, ethics, social responsibility and sustainability, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Students in the Interior Architecture and Design Program will assess and synthesize multiple factors in creating/producing and evaluating quality interior architecture and interior design products, services, and design solutions. Factors will address human, design, industry and business, global, environmental, and technology sensitivities.
Please visit the Concentration links below to view additional learning objectives for each concentration.
Potential Occupations
Career options for Interior Architecture graduates include, but are not limited to: professional commercial interior designer for workplace/hospitality/healthcare/education/retail/ etc., professional residential interior designer for single- or multi-family homes, facilities space planner, design strategist or researcher.
Career options for Interior Products and Retailing graduates include, but are not limited to: manufacturer's products/materials sales representative, independent multi-line product representative/business owner, interior product solutions specialist, furniture dealer-designer, ancillary furniture specialist, lighting showroom specialist, lighting consultant, interior products account manager, home goods merchandiser, interior staging, styling, and accessory curation specialist.
Nancy Richardson Design Center
The Nancy Richardson Design Center is a multi-disciplinary center located in the College of Health and Human Sciences at CSU, with a mission to foster interdisciplinary creative collaboration. It serves as a design-thinking hub where students from across campus can gather to collaborate, innovate, and prototype creative ideas in formal and informal learning spaces using state-of-the-art equipment and technology. The RDC has four studio/lab classrooms for hands-on learning, a seminar room for use by professional staff, a small dedicated project room that can also be used for student-teams and visiting designers-in-residence, two computer labs, a design exchange (for student presentations, gallery exhibitions, special lectures, and events, etc.), an ideation lab (including virtual reality equipment), prototyping lab (laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC textile equipment, etc.), metal shop (traditional metalworking tools, welding, as well as state-of-the-art CNC milling machinery), wood shop (traditional woodworking hand and power tools as well as a large 4’x8’ CNC router), and a sustainable dark room.
Concentrations
Learn more about the Interior Architecture and Design major on the Department of Design and Merchandising website.
Effective Fall 2024
Note: This is a 'placeholder' for the B.S. in Interior Architecture and Design. Effective Fall 2024, a 'standalone' major may not be completed - a concentration must be selected to graduate.
First year students in the Interior Architecture and Design Major will not declare a concentration until spring semester.
Students may apply to the Interior Architecture Concentration through the Selective Advancement Design Scenario. Students who qualify for the Selective Advancement Design Scenario must have a minimum grade of C in INTD 110, INTD 129, INTD 166, and a cumulative reported GPA of 2.500 or better to participate. All majors in the concentration must earn a minimum grade of C (2.000) in the studio course sequence to advance to the next studio (i.e., INTD 210, INTD 276, INTD 310, INTD 376, INTD 410).
To declare the Interior Products & Retailing Concentration and advance to the second year in the program, students must earn a minimum grade of C (2.000) in INTD 110, INTD 129 and INTD 166.
Please visit the links below to see requirements for each concentration: