MIARD is a nationally accredited two-year programme with a focus on design-research, experimentation and critical strategies within the field of Interior Architecture and alternative spatial practices. The programme is multidisciplinary and designed to achieve the Final Competencies to earn a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree.
Students actively engage in course modules that develop their skills, resources, and knowledge towards self-directed research. Curriculum modules are integrated and planned to support and critically engage with the subject and student interests, synthesizing research, innovation and professional expertise.
Curriculum
The curriculum is based on a multidisciplinary concept; following three module threads that provide the framework:
- Design Projects
- Critical Strategies
- Multiple Media
Over the course of the two-year programme (120 ects) there are four Design Projects structured over six trimesters. In the last two trimesters, students work independently on their Graduation Project and Thesis. All classes are taught in English.
Design Projects
Design-research projects are the core of the curriculum. The intensive project-based design studios explore contemporary issues and ideas that shape our culture, society, and the built and natural environment. Themes circulate along multiple agencies, perspectives and scales, from the local to the global, from objects to architecture and beyond.
Complementary events, lectures, excursions and guest visits run parallel with the project to provide students with historical, theoretical, technical and professional knowledge, skills and expertise. Craft and material workshops are integral to the development of the design project. Contingent on the subject, students explore tectonic principles and logics, technology and fabrication methods, materiality, and environmental/social performance as it relates to the students’ research agenda.
Critical Strategies
Theory + History
The seminar explores critical and analytical practices across disciplines within a variety of media. It is intended to develop a student’s maturity in forming ideas and creative vision, building opinions, and a critical approach to the subject matter. Attention is paid to the way interiors and the larger built and spatial environments have historically been shaped by the conceptual intentions of the designer and the need of the user, in addition to other social, economic, political, cultural, and technological factors. Relevant media is assembled in the seminars to offer a theoretical and critical backdrop to the design activity. Pedagogical and learning activities vary to provide students with a contemporary, exciting and diverse platform for inquiry.
Research Methods
The research module focuses on developing a student’s study and writing methodology within their own design process. Analytical and critical skills are explored through different types of research methods, structuring concepts, literature search, and other forms. The priority is for students to recognize and develop their own or collaborative forms of inquiry and experimentation.
Multiple Media
Design relies on a multiplicity of media systems. These systems are in flux as new technologies, tools and paradigms shift contemporary culture. Students investigate analogue and digital tools, as well as notable and present-day forms of visual and content methods to develop and express their work. Communication is explored through diverse platforms such as exhibition, publication, voice, Internet and social media.
Graduation Project + Thesis
The Graduation Project is a yearlong self-directed design-research investigation; it is executed in the second year of the programme and is shaped by two integrated and reciprocal efforts: Design Project and Thesis. The graduation project is planned as a bridge to professional practice after the Master studies.
These projects are the accumulation of unique design ideas and strategies based on a student’s interest, synthesizing research, innovation and professional expertise. The process commands maturity in content and creative vision, building opinions and a critical approach. Students are encouraged to circulate projects beyond the Piet Zwart Institute academic environment towards an international professional context with the intent to further build upon the research, launching their creative practice.