‘Reimagining and reprogramming existing buildings and spaces.’
Interior Architecture at UWE Bristol explores the following principle themes:
• context
• body and space
• narrative
• lateral thinking
That is, rethinking existing buildings and spaces, and enabling them to work better or differently. Never forgetting the fact that the spaces we create and recreate are designed to be inhabited and occupied by people, and that these spaces should be meaningful. Lateral thinking indicates not so much what we do, but our attitude towards what we do; our free-thinking and experimental approach embraces, for example, re-thinking, re-creating, re-imagining, re-programming, re-generating, re-developing, re-reading, re-viewing... it is an attitude of thinking broadly, making connections, considering things afresh in order to re-make the spaces we encounter.
Formally, IA at UWE situates itself within and between architecture and product design, encouraging students to deeply consider the context of their design practice (the urban scale and response to site) as well as the intimate, tactile and atmospheric qualities of space (the human scale and response to human need). We tell stories through design. Our students therefore develop a skill-set which embraces abstract and theoretical thinking as well as the technological and practical crafts through which design proposals are developed and depicted. We also seek out live design problems and agendas.
Re-cycling buildings can be more sustainable than demolition and replacement; with increasing pressures on building stock and land supply, society must think ever more creatively about how to use these resources. How to redeploy a building which no longer needs to function as originally designed? How to make an interior function more effectively? Further, we believe IA can be political – design should help solve social problems. 21st century society is complex, and becoming ever more fragmented and troubled. Training our young designers to consider not just space, but the ways in which space might be deployed for social good, is an essential part of our role here at UWE.
