Study Guide

Objectives

The profession of an interior architect comprises the renovation of interiors and old buildings and design of new apartments and public spaces.
Examples of planning targets include hotels, hospitals, schools, restaurants, ships, residential buildings and offices. Furniture, fixtures and interior decoration products form an essential part of space architecture.

The architecture, interior and products form a coherent whole, with satisfaction, wellbeing, experiences and successful business activities being the objectives of the planning. To reach these objectives, the interior architect needs support from different experts. Completing a successful interior architecture project requires understanding of the challenges of the target, together with good teamwork skills. Design, building and production must be responsible and take all users into account.

Degree programme description

Your professional skills are based on the competence, strong material and method knowhow of different product design methods and design methods. Cultural knowledge provides the basis for the comprehensive understanding of design and interior architecture. You learn to carry out your plans in the material-based and technology-based workshops.

In the art studies, you learn to see and develop functional visual solutions for the design field. During the visualization studies, you learn to use digital visualization programs and sketch by drawing. During the method studies, you learn to take users’ needs into account, model your design and justify your choices. In order to operate in the working world, you have to know the characteristics of the creative economy and get practical skills to work as a design entrepreneur.

The degree is composed of 240 ECTS credits and the education includes the following learning modules:

Core competence 135 ECTS credits
• Professional design 15 ECTS credits
• Languages 15 ECTS credits
• Workshops 15 ECTS credits
• Application of art 15 ECTS credits
• Visualization 15 ECTS credits
• Methods 15 ECTS credits
• Creative economy 15 ECTS credits
• Practical training 30 ECTS credits
• Bachelor’s thesis 15 ECTS credits

Complementary competence 105 ECTS credits
• Residence and public interiors 15 ECTS credits
• Furniture and construction 15 ECTS credits
• Office and retail design 15 ECTS credits
• Furniture and exhibition design 15 ECTS credits

Implementation of studies

Study flexibly

Your own personal study plan (PSP) provides guidance for your choice of studies, practical training, thesis work and internationalization. The objective is that you can design your studies as well as possible according to your life situation.

Learning tracks

Xamk offers its students an opportunity to pursue studies flexibly to suit their various life situations. Students can choose between three learning tracks: the scheduled track, independent track and blended track.

Scheduled track

You will attend teaching and guidance sessions as specified in the schedule. Your study routine is determined by the scheduled group sessions and by the self-study assignments.

Independent track

You can speed up your studies by, for example, choosing independent modes of completing assignments, e.g. online, or by selecting courses from the schedule of another group. Independent learning assignments require more self-study of the subject field compared with the scheduled track. You can also complete courses independently even if you are otherwise following the scheduled track. In that case you can attend the classroom instruction as you see fit. However, you are required to complete the learning assignments independently.

If you have acquired prior learning in the subject field of a course – whether through work experience or through studies – you may receive full or partial credit for the course through the recognition of this learning (if you have no certificate to present, a demonstration of competence is required). If you are granted a partial credit, you need to independently complete the parts of the course that were not covered by the accreditation.

Blended track

If you are working in a company or an organization in your field of study, or in a project hosted by the university of applied sciences, you can complete all or part of a course or module in your workplace or within the project. You need to contact the course teacher at the beginning of the course and agree on a development assignment that you will perform for your workplace or for the project. In order to achieve the learning goals, your work must involve the subject matter of the course and you must learn to master it both in theory and in practice. You are required to prove your learning by means of a demonstration of competence, the form and extent of which are determined by the learning goals of the course.

Student counselling

Study guidance is a day-to-day activity that is based on the student's needs.
The whole personnel supports student wellbeing in many ways and with many services. In questions regarding studies, you can contact the studies coordinators and tutors, the student social worker, the counselling psychologist and the student health care.

BYOD – Bring Your Own Device

For students it means that they primarily use their own devices, such as laptops. New students arriving in Xamk will have our new policy in action. The new BYOD policy demands students bring their own devices, i.e. laptops, to campus.

Career opportunities

After graduation, you can work in architecture or interior architecture offices, and in various design agencies offering interior decoration and design services.

You can act as an interior architect in cooperation with experts of the field in multidisciplinary teams and in project and development activities of the private and public sector or as the entrepreneur in your own design company. The studies let you follow the career that correspond to your own interests.

You could work as
• designer
• furniture designer
• interior architect
• interior designer

RDI and cooperation with world of work

In interior architecture and furniture design, there is cooperation between different education fields in Xamk, but also with partner institutions and companies in Finland and abroad. There are also regional partner agreements with companies and specialists making use of design.

The studies are carried out in cooperation with companies. During the studies, you participate in a variety of projects, which include assignments related to the theme of the study module, in cooperation with your student colleagues and actors of the field.
You can complete your practical training and/or Bachelor’s thesis in different R&D projects or as part of cooperation with companies/organizations. Your task may be conducting preliminary studies and carrying out assignments as part of an expert group. In the final stages of studies, you could participate in a module, which forms a part of RDI activities, focusing on relevant subject matters and themes.

Learning environments

Kouvola campus features design studios suitable for different design assignments and computer classes equipped with up-to-date software for visualization, 3D modelling and documentation.

Xamk workshop facilities, designed for the processing of various materials and equipped with modern machines, offer a functional learning environment. You can carry out 3D modelling and manufacturing in the learning environments during your studies and develop your designs into scale models, prototypes and end products. The hardware includes the basic wood workshop, plastic workshop and metal workshop, together with computer controlled manufacturing methods of the studio, such as laser cutting, 3D printing and CNC manufacturing of bio-based materials.

The learning environments have modern 3D software and devices for scanning, 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC manufacturing. You learn to do 3D modelling, starting from the basics and developing your skills to the advanced level. We use 3D planning software generally used in the design field.