Members

University of Derby

Exhibiting at IE 2026 Awards @ MillerKnoll,
The Sans,
St John’s Sq,
EC1M 4AH

Exhibiting at National Student Awards 2025 @ MillerKnoll,
The Sans,
St John’s Sq,
EC1M 4AH

Exhibiting at Summer Show 2023 - Exhibition @

Catherine Izundu - Botanical Café

Cerstin Hosemann - Schnapps Tasting Venue

Eloise Foster - Courtyard

Lauri Shöffmann - Design Retail Venue

Linda Hailing - Artist Collaboration Venue

Lisa-Marie Opitz - Health Restaurant and Shop

Course name
BA (Hons) Interior Design

Course Address University of Derby,
Kedleston Road,
Derby
DE22 1GB
Course Leader – Barend Slabbert
Course Email – B.Slabbert@derby.ac.uk
Course Website – https://www.derby.ac.uk/undergraduate/architecture-architectural-technology-courses/interior-design-ba-hons/

About the course

Explore your own voice and culture within a dynamic interior design curriculum focused towards the design and development of unique spatial narratives from initial brief and conceptualisation through to technical resolution, with rich multi-modal methods of communication. The programme also offers unique interdisciplinary, collaborative and creative disruption opportunities with local and international multi-cultural partners and design disciplines. The course is delivered by a young and energetic team passionate about their field, to enable you to become the new leading designer of the 21st century.

Course description

The role and responsibilities of an Interior Designer is not limited to the aesthetics of interiors alone, and encompasses everything from the initial brief to the final build. It is a broad field associated with the conceptualisation and development of spatial narratives (journeys), and spatial identities, whether such an intervention occurs inside an existing building, an urban interior, or as a self-standing entity in the form of exhibitions and set-stages, be it temporary or permanent. It also explores a rich variety of medium to enhance multi-modal communication of a design. The course is dynamic and co-creative, in that it welcomes the students’ own voices/cultures. It is also dynamic in that it values risk-taking and experimentation and national/international collaboration. It further aims to equip its students with all the relevant skills and knowledge ready for the ‘real’ world upon graduation.

The course is for anyone who is inspired and moved by interiors as well as inquisitive enough to find out how to realise these technically. Studying Interior Design at Derby will help you develop your design skills to create functional and unique spaces with strong spatial identities and narratives, and articulate these through specific spatial qualities, i.e. forms, texture and materials, lighting, colour, architectural spatial components, objects, and the composition and detailed assembly thereof, enabling you to make your ideas become a reality. On this course you will learn how we as interior designers are ‘authors’ of such spatial narratives in order to develop spatial encounters that are environmentally responsible, memorable and experiential.

In addition you will gain exposure to the wide field that is interior design exploring various spatial typologies such as residential interiors, commercial interiors i.e. retail, corporate, set-stage and exhibition design and hospitality, as well as exploring adaptive reuse/regenerative design to name but a few, with a focus on employment opportunities open to an interior design graduate. You will also learn how to collaborate nationally/internationally, and design bespoke artefacts and furniture to compliment your interiors and generate the appropriate multi-modal visual documentation required for each stage of the design. Furthermore, you will get to understand how people relate to space and objects, by being exposed to ergonomics, and learn to design spaces that are functional and in accordance to building regulations and health and safety legislation.