- Students design solutions to pressing issues, with projects often seeing the real-world application. Prominent projects include a Mobile Kitchen design, RIT Hope for Honduras, designing RIT City Art Space, a collaboration with the Rochester Public Library, and capstone research.
- Studio spaces allow students to interact with peers and faculty, fostering collaboration. And our professional-level material resource center contains specialty products managed and updated regularly by manufacturer vendors.
- Our faculty are practicing professionals immersed in the subject matters they instruct and strive to provide an atmosphere that parallels a professional workplace.
- RIT's 4+2 BFA/M.Arch. enables you to complete the BFA in interior design and enter the second year of RIT's master of architecture degree with advanced standing. Learn more about this accelerated pathway
- Students regularly showcase their creative and innovative projects to a global audience during NYCxDESIGN, with their involvement including the curation of exhibitions for the WantedDesign Manhattan event.
- Sustainable thinking and socially conscious design are two values embedded in the curriculum and guiding principles for program initiatives.
The interior design degree believes in creating contextually appropriate, architecture-centric design solutions grounded in evidence-based design research and human behavior theory. Our goal is to inspire and prepare students to generate holistic, technically creative construction solutions that are not only resilient, adaptable, and sustainable, but purposeful and universally designed.
We are a professional interior design BFA program within a design college, in a technical university affording broader access to allied programs, technology resources, and relationships that push traditional boundaries of interior design education.
From freshman through senior year, you'll be charged with addressing real-world projects in the studio along with peers in collaborative, multidisciplinary teaming activities and in independent studies with research faculty. As a student in the program accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), you'll begin your education with an interdisciplinary Foundations and first-year experience.
The comprehensive interior design curriculum synthesizes the technical and experiential qualities of the built environment with a consciousness for global affairs. Our professionally certified and experienced faculty team mentor you through project-based learning to enhance the human experience with consideration for the health, safety, and welfare of people. In addition to interior design studies and extensive studio electives within the college, you can select a liberal arts immersion offering concentrated areas of study in a unique interest or complementary subject matter relevant to our profession.
Our studio culture is a rigorous, student-centered learning environment with a commitment to celebrating individual capabilities and advancing the program as a collaborative collective. Our enthusiasm for seeing the world through multiples lenses is grounded by curiosity, respectful inquiry, and intellectual discourse. We believe that together we can design a more profoundly meaningful future through the interior environment.
Our Mission
The interior design degree's mission is to educate you to be a designer who contributes to their professions, communicates effectively within your discipline, has a lifelong attitude of inquiry, and makes a positive impact on society. To this end, we promote an innovative educational community that balances expression, imaginative problem solving, aesthetic understanding, professional and environmental responsibility, and creativity.
Educational Philosophy
Our comprehensive interior design major synthesizes design history, building systems, space planning, and design process with a consciousness for global affairs so that students may contribute to the profession with a deep-rooted understanding of society, culture, and the environment. By maximizing an array of academic and professional opportunities, our graduates are reshaping how we live in the world.
Program Goals
- Explore, challenge, and enhance interior design abilities through problem-solving
- Demonstrate knowledge of historical, stylistic, theoretical, regional, and cultural design vocabularies
- Use materials, techniques, and processes used in the built environment with a focus on sustainable design
- Conduct research and analyze information
- Introduce design theory, methodology, formal design elements, typology, and necessary technical skills to communicate concepts
- Examine business practices, regulations, standards, and codes of interior design
Invaluable Resources
Dedicated studio and lecture spaces provide you with the freedom to interact with peers and faculty, fostering teamwork and collaboration. Our active material resource center is akin to the professional office library with "go-to" and specialty products that are managed and updated regularly by manufacturer vendors. RIT's world-renowned Vignelli Center for Design Studies also serves as a vital resource for understanding the process and product of design by some of the world's most acclaimed designers.
Faculty
We have professional faculty who are active in the industry and strive to provide an atmosphere akin to the professional workplace. Our adjuncts are practicing professionals immersed in the subject matters they instruct and extend our reach into the local design community, introducing you to real projects and experiences. Our faculty team is building a studio culture of community and an interior design program focused on excellence, diversity, and pluralism.
Staying Connected
Our illustrious alumni are committed to mentoring students through internship and professional networking activities. Additionally, as an International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Campus Center, we facilitate regular interaction and events with industry professionals.
Professional Memberships
The School of Design maintains memberships in a variety of professional organizations, including Industrial Designers Society of America, ACM Siggraph, Society of Environmental Graphic Designers, American Institute of Architects, ICOGRADA, American Institute of Graphic Arts, and International Interior Design Association.
Combined Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Degrees
Today's careers require advanced degrees grounded in real-world experience. RIT's Combined Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Degrees enable you to earn both a bachelor's and a master's degree in as little as five years of study, all while gaining the valuable hands-on experience that comes from co-ops, internships, research, study abroad, and more.
4+2 BFA/M.Arch. Pathway: A BFA degree takes four years to complete and an M.Arch. degree typically takes an additional three to four years. In RIT's 4+2 BFA/M.Arch. Pathway, you'll complete a BFA in industrial design or interior design and then enter the second year of RIT's NAAB-accredited master of architecture degree with advanced standing. Learn how this accelerated pathway enables you to earn a BFA and an M.Arch. degree in as little as six years, saving you time and money.
+1 MBA: Students who enroll in a qualifying undergraduate degree have the opportunity to add an MBA to their bachelor's degree after their first year of study, depending on their program. Learn how the +1 MBA can accelerate your learning and position you for success.
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