Philosophy
Develop globally competent interior design practitioners and scholars who excel in identifying and solving interior environment problems from an evidence-based, human-centered approach by applying knowledge, infusing creativity, and valuing the person and the environment through an interdisciplinary design process.
Mission
- Undergraduate students learn how to be professional interior designers who design in ways that protect people’s health and safety and improve human well-being. The curriculum, participation in related activities, and engagement with design practitioners instill in them the ability to use an evidence-based approach, cross-disciplinary theories, and content knowledge to design holistically, think critically, communicate persuasively, work collaboratively, and act responsibly.
- MS and PhD students learn how to pursue interdisciplinary inquiry to explore answers to pressing questions confronting people in interior environments so they can lead and serve in academia, business, and industry.
Goals
The interior design faculty fosters the following interior design program goals, which are appropriate to the mission and prepare our students and graduates for practice.
- Educate interior designers to practice from a human behavior approach inclusive of physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
- Educate interior designers to practice evidence-based design as well as normative design.
- Educate interior designers to practice sustainable design.
- Educate interior designers prepared to practice above the level expected in practice (exceed minimum-level competency).
- Develop creative problem-solvers who think critically and work collaboratively.
- Celebrate diversity in students, faculty members, clients, project types, communities of interest, and the public.
- Develop ethical, empathetic, and socially responsible leaders to address the University of Minnesota Grand Challenges.
- Internationalize the curriculum to reflect global opportunities for learning, practice, and integration into the curriculum.
- Integrate interdisciplinary processes as a norm in design.
- Foster national recognition.
