Certificate of Interior Design

Unit 1 – Scope and Nature of Interior Design

• Planning and design of interior spaces
• Interior designers & skills required
• History of interior design
• Popular styles
• Trends in decoration
• Influential components
• Decoration with plants
• Decorating with colour
• Colour theory
• Decorating with texture
• Wabi-sabi (Japanese arts)
• Decorating with pattern
• Decorating with artwork
• Decoration with features
• Key principles
• Other influential design components
• Acoustics, lighting, space, configuration, symmetry

Unit 2 – Choosing Components

• Components of a design
• Paints and paint types
• Interior vs exterior use
• Hard materials. Metal etc – glass, masonry, polymers, stone, tiles, plasterboard
• Floor treatments
• Finishes
• Soft materials and accessories
• Choosing furnishings
• Window coverings
• Choosing hardware
• Design brief (work in progress)
• Preparing colour samples and materials boards
• Preserving nature in interior design
• Indoor/outdoor rooms and spaces
• Using and placing indoor plants

Unit 3 – Choosing Services

• Types of services -electricity, gas, water, telecommunications
• Heating and cooling
• Managing heat transfer
• Heating options
• Hot water systems
• Lighting
• Ambient lighting
• Task lighting
• Accent lighting
• Electrical outlets & light switches
• Telephone and internet
• Water supply
• Other services
• Smart building solutions
• Robots for cleaning
• Collaboration in creative processes
• Developing relationships & managing people
• Working with professional services – architects, accountants etc
• Managing productivity to get the job to completion
• On site safety
• Licensing requirements

Unit 4 – Redesigning an Occupied or Aged Building

• Ethics and legal considerations
• Ethics for an interior design consultant
• Ethics of building preservation
• Building regulations
• Planning consent
• Heritage and conservation areas
• Evaluating the site
• Creativity
• Determining a client goals
• Brain storming
• Know your clients design – wants and needs
• Determine customer motivation
• Types of change – restoration, renovation or design
• Redecoration – colour, texture and pattern
• Reorganisation/altering space
• Drawing floor plans
• Using computer aided design (CAD)
• Create a CAD project

Unit 5 – Designing a Vacant or New Building

• Role of a designer
• Colour and aesthetics
• Physical features
• Practical features
• Luxury features and quality
• Resources
• Structures -considering size, level, straightness, type of materials
• Sound and sound proofing
• Acoustic panels
• Properties of different materials – thermal, electrical, environmental, economic, etc
• Technology in design
• Sensors and robotics in new home design
• A note on temperature sensors
• Moving to an internet-based digital infrastructure in homes and workplaces
• Design simulation
• CAD design process

Unit 6 – Altering Spaces

• Working with a brief
• Spatial awareness
• Photos, sketches, accurate measurements
• Levelling
• Using computer software
• Spatial planning
• Use of space – storage, work, social, private
• Design considerations – axis lines, focal points
• Creating flow
• Creating specific areas
• Using views
• Functionality, proportion, scale
• The kitchen triangle design
• Altering existing spaces -extensions, conversions
• Recreating original styles
• Workplace interiors.

Unit 7 – Organising the Interior

• Design decisions for organising space – harmony, unity, balance, scale, proportion, rhythm, contrast, details
• Reorganisation
• Temporary or permanent change
• Creating ambience
• Reorganising furnishings
• Maximising Use of space -decluttering, distancing, space saving furniture, using smaller items, using walls, visual effects
• Storage Example – butlers pantry
• Creating open plan spaces

Unit 8 – Designing for Health and Wellbeing

• Interior materials for better health – paints, natural paint
• Biological factors – mould bacteria, rots, other fungi
• Glues and Adhesives
• Fabrics
• Feng Shui
• Biophilic design
• Green design
• Green materials
• Energy efficient buildings
• Quality of indoor environment
• Ergonomic design
• Psychology in interior design (light space colour and design)

Unit 9 – Budgeting and Project Management

• Budgeting priorities, timing, feasibility
• Managing a project
• Implementing an operational plan
• Controlling a project
• Creating a GANTT chart
• Producing project documentation
• Critical path analysis
• Record keeping
• Contracts and agreements
• Invoicing
• Bad debts
• Cash flow
• Initiation a collection

Unit 10 – Special Project

• Four parts to this project
• Choose a room to design
• Research design considerations
• Prepare a design
• Report on your design