Interior Design

BA (Hons)

2021/22 was a year to get in and get busy as the doors opened up again and sterile computer screens became messy upcycled pots, Microsoft Teams became handmade collages and paintbrushes and PDF’s became bespoke publications. We had a large cohort of 87 students this year across Level 4-6. With a100% score in NSS in 2021 we had a lot to live up to. ‘Mental Wealth 3’ was a new Year 03 module launched this year as part of a new framework. I ran this alongside Claudia Palma and built in a professional skills program based on industry and readiness that included Stages of Work, CV’s, selected work portfolios, cover letters, mock interviews, professional headshots (kindly taken by Adam Wiseman and his Level 4 students from photography!) and finally a week-long ‘Job-Shadowing’ in 17 different practices and studios across London. The submission for this module required a 1000-word reflective report by the student, illustrating what they had learned by critically evaluating their experience. A highlight was one of our top students Laylaa Osman gaining work experience at Adjaye + Associates. The list of practices can be seen in the following pages.

BA Interior Design saw a new Year 02 lead tutor Pol Gallagher being appointed permanently to the teaching team. Year 02’s in SEMA carried out a feature staircase and viewing platform project in the Barbican that culminated in an exhibition in the adjacent Velorose Gallery, housing the work of the 22 students neatly compiled onto A2 competition boards and carefully hung under the guidance of gallerist David Rosenberg. In SEMB Year 02 Interior Design students were tasked to design the mighty Broadgate Exhibition in 3 Finsbury Avenue, opening 11.06.22 for UEL Fashion graduates and Architecture and Fine Art on 22.06.22. The students worked in groups to create designs for an Entrance Arch, bar, reception desk and walls and plinths as well as a fashion runway. A major feature being the first-time listing of UEL within London Fashion Week’s official schedule.

An online article in Dezeen will be launched in July 2022 to highlight the success of the Broadgate exhibition and the hard work of our Year 02 students. Our other physical exhibition this year ‘Does that make sense?’ presented all of our students’ prototypes and drawings and models as a complete Interior BA show in Way Out East Gallery in AVA, where we had several crits amongst the works and an opening to celebrate the Mid Year despite a freakish hurricane blowing through London.

Interior Educators takes place in a much larger format this year where we are sided up against the other Interior Design courses within the UK such as Kingston, GSA, ECA, Manchester MET and more in the OXO Barge building where we will carry through a version of our Broadgate structure and show our best work.

Broadgate Competition was a massive success where three of our year 02 and 03 students were finalists and moved through to the last 6 teams of 50. When the opportunity was present we used workshops and studios on campus making prototype receptions desks in Year 01 using Laser-cutting and 3d printing. In Year 03 recycled and upcycled plant pot 1:1’s as well as large 1:20 scaled models of a new Mahler + Lewitt residency centre project in De Beauvoir made sure interiors were once again the dominant course using our excellent UEL workshops (big thanks to all the techs for their help!).

Our Semester 01 guest lecture series was packed this year in collaboration with Architecture and ADSOC, held on a Tuesday Lunchtime for which we designed the poster series. These included Patrik Schumacher, Keef Winter, Alison Cooke, CAN, Guy Robertson, Tony Tremlett, Nicholas Szczepaniak, Simon Hamilton, Grimshaw, Amy Frearson, DEZEEN, Maliha Haque, Robert Jamison, Niall McLaughlin, Richard Wilson Resolve Collective Atsushi Iwata All of these guests brought an important piece of current relevant information to the table, giving our cohort an elegant array of confident creatives to bolster their own belief in themselves.

Dr Keith Winter PhD MArch DipArch BSc Arch (hons) ARB