BFA.INTST.120 - BFA in Interior Studies Adaptive Reuse

2025 - 2026 | Curriculum | 4-year program

In the first year of the program, which begins after students complete RISD's required year of Foundation Studies, sophomores take introductory courses that cover the ideas and vocabulary of Interior Architecture and provide the basis for subsequent studios. Juniors further explore the field through advanced studios, supplemented by a broad range of technical, theoretical and historical courses.

In the Interior Studies: Adaptive Reuse BFA program, majors receive an exceptional education in spatial design as it relates to the built environment. Students complete 120 credit hours of coursework in Interior Architecture, studio electives and Liberal Arts classes across three departments: History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences, Literary Arts and Studies, and Theory and History of Art and Design.

In developing design strategies across a range of work, students learn how to investigate and make interior interventions in various forms, while recognizing the importance of social and environmental responsibility within the discipline. Graduates of the program earn a strong academic foundation that uniquely prepares them for graduate studies and professional design practice.

Learning outcomes

Graduates of the BFA program are prepared to:

• evaluate their own individual talents, interests and aptitudes to determine a suitable career path.

• navigate a collaborative work environment in order to investigate aspects of interior interventions through conceptual thinking and critical making.

• develop design strategies that recognize the importance of social and environmental responsibility.

• understand design principles and the tools for implementing them to develop meaningful and coherent design propositions.

• recognize the importance of context in the transformation of space and acknowledge its implications in the formulation of design concepts.

• articulate design concepts and implement interventions based on the transformation of existing structures.

• communicate design ideas through drawings, projections and both physical and digital models.

• engage with interior interventions in the field and apply this knowledge in design projects of varying scales.