School of Architecture

Master of Interior Design

Alternate Environments [STEM Program]

The Master of Interior Design (MID) program provides an education in interior environments that elevates and reinvents the discipline of interior architecture by mining and re-imagining the range of our human experiences. In doing so, this graduate program cultivates scholars, academics and critics, while generating emergent and alternative approaches to the profession, specifically in the Southern California region. MID is a STEM program. Learn more about STEM at Woodbury.

The Master of Interior Design program is under reconstruction and will begin accepting applications in fall 2024 for a re-launch in fall 2025. Faculty are currently re-imagining the degree program to ensure the highest value education that prepares graduates for entry into the profession of Interior Architecture and Design. Check back in the summer for exciting new developments. Please click here if you would like to receive updates.

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Woodbury's Master of Interior Design Officially Designated as STEM

All architecture and interior design programs at Woodbury have been designated as STEM degrees. The School of Architecture received approvals internally from the University Curriculum Committee and Office of Academic Affairs, and externally from WASC (WSCUC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Student Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). Starting in the fall of 2020, students enrolling in the following programs will graduate with STEM-designated degrees:

Master of Architecture
Master of Science in Architecture
Master of Science in Architecture in Real Estate Development
Master of Interior Design
Bachelor of Architecture
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design

All international students enrolled in these programs can now apply for a 24-month extension of their post-completion OPT (Optional Practice Training) for a total of 36 months.

Student Work

The Interior Design program at Woodbury School of Architecture explores new design frontiers and expands professional possibilities. Designers of interior environments craft spaces and design atmospheres for a wide range of situations: picturesque private spaces defined by physical boundaries, public spaces bound by landscapes and exterior vistas, spaces for community engagement, exhibition installations, and virtual spaces, both real and imagined. Customizable interdisciplinary possibilities provide rich territories for interior architecture students seeking to mine new frontiers and intersections: personalized curricula that can incorporate courses in gaming, film, animation, psychology, graphic design, fashion, curation and business, all expand the rich possibilities for exploration and innovation.

Faculty & Staff

Our internationally recognized and award-winning faculty work closely with students, teaching the skills required to push the limits of practice and explore disciplinary possibilities in both theoretical and professional arenas. Through individual attention, we foster close mentoring relationships between faculty, staff and students that extends to network opportunities after graduation.

Faculty Directory

MID Tracks

Students who possess baccalaureate degrees in any discipline can enter the MID three-year track, while students who possess baccalaureate degrees in interior architecture, interior design, environmental arts or architecture are eligible to enter the MID with advanced standing. Transdisciplinary project-based studios allow students to work across practice, from the built, to the virtual, to the augmented.

MID Course Details

The MID program provides students with a flexible and relevant curriculum. This agile program allows students to actively participate in crafting their education, to inflect each course with their own critical approach, and to specialize in their own professional pursuits. Click here to find out more about transfer articulations, and you can also review the 2-year and 3-year program worksheets below. Explore the course catalog or the drop downs below for more detailed information.

FIRST YEAR | FALL

IDES 630 Emerging Ideas 3: Acquisition and Directing
This course studies materials and methods of detailing, fabrication, documentation, and specification, and analyzes construction materials and building systems including structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting, and acoustics. In conjunction with the building systems, this course examines building codes related to interior design through research, observation, and architectural documentation of non-structural elements of contemporary or modern design. Materials and their integration, application, and/or connections are emphasized.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 615, Emerging Ideas 2: Investigation and Steering, or acceptance into the two-year track. 1 unit.

IDES 618 Criticism 3: Rewriting the Canon
This course builds on and blends the content of IDES 617, Criticism 2 with interests arising from Emerging Ideas 1–3, using history, theory, and criticism to reinterpret and expand the discipline. Students will work to culminate their efforts via research salon, symposium, and publication.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 617, Criticism 2: Declaring the Canon, or acceptance into the two-year track. 3 units.

IDES 640 Studio 3: Pathways and Modalities
Students explore relevant aspects of the design problem to situate their operative strategies toward design solutions. Methodologies will be introduced and explored with the goal of stimulating authentic and creative responses for spatial development.
Studio. Pre-requisites: IDES 620, Studio 2: Synthesizing Complexity, or acceptance into the 2-year track. 5 units.

IDES 606 Visualization 3: Advanced Drawing and Modeling
Students develop advanced visualization skills through experimentation, and are exposed to the aesthetic and philosophical objectives of drawing and modeling. The complexities that exist between conceptualization and representation are analyzed through a study of changing techniques within mixed and evolving media.
Studio. No pre-requisites. 3 units.

IDES 626 Figuring Space 3: Impact and Implication
This course explores material logics and their implications through case study analysis and performative modeling. A body of research grows through consideration of the unique contributions of materials and building systems. Students learn an integrated approach to managing environmental performance, human comfort, and life safety. Discussion integrates the functionality, phenomenological effect, and resource impact of materials and systems selection.
Lecture. No pre-requisites. 3 units.

FIRST YEAR | SPRING

IDES 635 Emerging Ideas 4: Methodological Slant
The fourth Emerging Ideas course provides a three-unit seminar focusing on methodological approaches to research, including theoretical, historical, and design knowledge. It is in this seminar that students transform the overall research interests of the cohort into individual methods of creating knowledge. Methodologies explored include those used with various disciplinary emphases in architecture and design, ranging from professional to academic, normative to exploratory, all with a strong critical lens. This seminar provides grounding for the students’ research interests in their study-away Fieldwork studio the following summer.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 630, Emerging Ideas 3: Acquisition and Directing; IDES 618, Criticism 3: Rewriting the Canon. 3 units.

IDES 632 Practice 1: Ethics and the Profession
Students gain an understanding of basic business concepts, codes, contracts, procedures, documents, licensure, management, and policy in alternative and standard practices relative to interior design with an emphasis on ethical and legal issues.
Lecture. Co-Requisites: IDES 635, Emerging Ideas 4: Methodological Slant. 3 units.

FIRST YEAR | SUMMER

IDES 647 Studio 4: Fieldwork 6
Students match up their methodological biases developed in Emerging Ideas 4 with a destination for exploration in an immediate environment outside of the classroom. Collaborative exchanges between faculty, the student cohort, and contingents will maximize the provocation of design ideas. The studio will assist the student in negotiating the terrain across academia, practice, and the evolving inhabited environment in preparation for a focus subject for Studios 5 and 6.
Studio. Pre-requisites: IDES 635, Emerging Ideas 4: Methodological Slant; IDES 640, Studio 3: Pathways and Modalities. 6 units.

SECOND YEAR | FALL

IDES 645 Emerging Ideas 5: Aggregation and Realizing
Working in conjunction with IDES 619, Criticism 4, this course provides a forum for continued cohort involvement with individual students’ research/design projects. Formatted as a workshop, the seminar provides intentional and directed critique of the students’ projects so that they align with the general research agenda of the cohort.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 635, Emerging Ideas 4: Methodological Slant. 1 unit.

IDES 619 Criticism 4: Thesis Preparation
Through self-directed study and research, students will leverage their experiences from the Fieldwork Studio and Emerging Ideas 4–5 to develop and articulate the practical, theoretical, and methodological context for a thesis project, culminating in a substantiated written position of intent.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 618, Criticism 3: Rewriting the Canon; IDES 635, Emerging Ideas 4: Methodological Slant. 3 units.

IDES 650 Studio 5: Convergence
Through a collaboration with a small-group cohort with similar methodological or subject focus, directed study and research, and support by select expert resources, students engage with the development of their thesis focus. Continual clarification of conceptual framework, contextual scenario, and program development will define an advanced situated set of criteria for each student’s self-selected subject.
Studio. Pre-requisites: IDES 647, Studio 4: Fieldwork. 5 units.

IDES 633 Practice 2: Commentary on Interior Design
This second Practice course provides a forum for continued discussion with individual students on the alternatives of practice, research, focused study, and the profession in interior design.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 632, Practice 1: Ethics and the Profession. 3 units.

SECOND YEAR | SPRING

IDES 655 Emerging Ideas 6: Conclusion and Assessing
The last seminar provides a structured environment for the cohort to organize and determine the final outcome of the body of research.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 645, Emerging Ideas 5: Aggregation and Realizing; IDES 619. Criticism 4: Thesis Preparation. 1 unit.

IDES 660 Studio 6: Thesis
The culmination of the Master of Interior Design, students pursue their self-directed theses in collaboration with a faculty advisor and a selected expert resource. Continual self-assessment and synthesis of the knowledge and skills developed in the program is exercised as part of the thesis development process to demonstrate mastery of the critical focus and practice of the discipline.
Studio. Pre-requisites: IDES 619, Criticism 4: Thesis Preparation; IDES 650, Studio 5: Convergence. 5 units.

IDES 634 Practice 3: Collaboration
The third course in the Practice series asks students to merge the research developed in the Emerging Ideas seminars with real-world experience. Students select and research the work of a professional and engage in a mentoring relationship. This relationship provides the opportunity for students to take their thesis research and “test” it with a professional or scholar who has worked on similar research.
Lecture. Co-Requisites: IDES 660, Studio 6: Thesis. 3 units.

FIRST YEAR | FALL

IDES 614 Emerging Ideas 1: Navigation and Orienting
Through a series of short lectures, panel discussions, and class forums, students learn about current trends and issues affecting the design of the built environment. The issues are presented topically and generally, allowing a cohort to articulate and aggregate the current body of knowledge in interior design into a general scope of investigation further explored in IDES 615, Emerging Ideas 2: Investigation and Steering.
Lecture. No pre-requisites. 1 unit.

IDES 616 Criticism 1: Fieldwork Southern California
Using Southern California as a realm of empirical study, students will engage in a range of historical, political, cultural, material, and sociological issues from the scale of the interior to the city. Observational research and analysis, mapping, and experiential case studies will be used to explore contemporary issues of interiority and human occupation relative to the urban condition of Los Angeles.
Lecture. No pre-requisites. 3 units.

IDES 610 Studio 1: New Frontier of Space
This foundation graduate design studio prompts a fundamental understanding of the multi-valent aspects of interior spaces through an introduction to design methodologies across multiple mediums. Students explore design in two and three dimensions through skill development in drawing, material exploration, modeling, and critical thinking.
Studio. No pre-requisites. 5 units.

IDES 600 Visualization 1: Making Technique 3 MA
Students are inducted into the cultural and traditional conventions of architectural representation. This course operates as a workshop providing analog and digital communication standards and making techniques for documenting, drawing, and modeling design ideas.
Studio. No pre-requisites. 3 units.

IDES 624 Figuring Space 1: Materiality and Making
This course provides an exploration of the impact of materiality and fabrication in both the generation and reading of form and space. An intuitive knowledge of material properties and processes will be gained through detailing, construction, and fabrication methods, with a concentration on the application of materials in custom elements relating to the body in scale or use. Formal, conceptual, and programmatic solutions are studied through a specific design strategy with an emphasis on new or hybrid programs.
Lecture. No pre-requisites. 3 units.

FIRST YEAR | SPRING

IDES 615 Emerging Ideas 2: Investigation and Steering
With a stronger emphasis on collaborative research and the integration of disparate interests, this course offers the cohort of students the opportunity to investigate individual interests, combine those interests with the survey of issues presented in Emerging Ideas 1, and transform the two into a general issue the students will explore throughout the remaining two years of their study.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 614, Emerging Ideas 1: Navigation and Orienting. 1 unit.

IDES 617 Criticism 2: Declaring the Canon
Interior architecture is still an emerging discipline, working to triangulate a unique body of knowledge among the areas of architecture, the humanities and social sciences, and the applied arts. As such, its historical canon has not yet been declared. Students Master of Interior Design 2021-2022 Course Catalog 76 will navigate the global, historical narrative of cultural, societal, and philosophical traditions via theory and manifestations of the interior from prehistory through the present.
Lecture. No pre-requisites. 3 units.

IDES 620 Studio 2: Synthesizing Complexity
Students uncover increasing complexity in architectural spaces through the mining of design potentials of planning logic, systems integration, and program development. Modules of exploration will include identification, evaluation and application of the design brief, synthesis of research to generate multiple design concepts, iterative development, including accommodation of human scale, and program of use.
Studio. Pre-requisites: IDES 610, Studio 1: New Frontier of Space; IDES 600, Visualization 1: Making Technique. 5 units.

IDES 605 Visualization 2: Analytical Constructions
Building upon the empirical and analytical fieldwork of IDES 616, Criticism 1, this course will expand expository capacities through diagramming, mapping, and other forms of representational analysis in both two- and three-dimensional analog and digital hardware and software.
Studio. Pre-requisites: IDES 600, Visualization 1: Making Technique. 3 units.

IDES 625 Figuring Space 2: Code Analysis and Construction
This course studies materials and methods of detailing, fabrication, documentation, and specification, and analyzes construction materials and building systems including structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting, and acoustics. In conjunction with the building systems, this course examines building codes related to interior design through research, observation, and architectural documentation of non-structural elements of contemporary or modern design. Materials and their integration, application, and/or connections are emphasized.
Lecture. Pre-requisites: IDES 600, Visualization 1: Making Technique. 3 units.

SECOND YEAR | FALL

SECOND YEAR | SPRING

SECOND YEAR | SUMMER

THIRD YEAR | FALL

THIRD YEAR | SPRING

Making at Woodbury

Woodbury School of Architecture’s Making Complex is a platform for experimentation and advanced fabrication. Discover how Woodbury is exploring new technologies to rethink the future of architecture and push the boundaries of design.

Internships & Careers

Woodbury School of Architecture supports our students in building a strong foundation for professional practice while investigating the expanding boundaries of practice itself. Surrounded by major creative industries — to include film, animation, and gaming — and in a city of constant adaptive re-use, our students graduate well-positioned to engage with and transform practice. Visit our School of Architecture Career Services page for more information about our services.

School of Architecture Careers

MID Scholars Program

The MID Scholars Program is student-centered resource in which notable thinkers in the creative fields such as interior design, industrial design, architecture, landscape architecture work directly with MID students in their final year of the program. MID Scholars provide expertise in an area of research that aligns with that of the student they are working with. The context for this pairing is the MID student’s thesis project. Scholars may be Woodbury faculty or drawn from outside the university.

MID SCHOLARs

Unmentionables 2019

The Unmentionables Symposium is a biannual event highlighting critical issues concerning the constructed environment. It provides a forum for rarely mentioned ideas in spatial practice and theory. The inaugural symposium in April 2017, hosted by the Woodbury University Interior Design Department, featured compelling presentations and panel discussions that brought together a broad range of renowned designers and thinkers from literature, architecture, film, art, philosophy, and interior design.

Unmentionables 2019

Facilities

Making Complex

The Burbank facility takes full advantage of the university’s academic offerings, student support services, comprehensive library, and residential campus life. At the same time, it offers specialized facilities including a wood shop, a metal shop, a materials resource library, a digital fabrication lab, a lighting lab, computing facilities, a render farm, and 24-hour access to studios, including a 15,000-square foot studio building.

Making Complex

Intelligent Lighting Laboratory

The Intelligent Lighting Laboratory allows the students to simulate lighting scenarios and explore through hands-on experience the effects of light on materials and space. It allows them to question the status quo of lighting design and to develop innovative ways of using lighting in architectural spaces. During their coursework new technologies are tested and the equipment and facilities help with the investigation of new ideas. Experiments investigate the impacts of these applications on both the experience of human users of architecture and energy consumption.

Materials Resource Library

The Materials Resource Library holds a large collection of physical samples and online resources, including a subscription to a comprehensive online material database called Material ConneXion. Samples represent a wide range of both standard interior finishes, and more experimental materials.

Advanced Material Testing Laboratory

The Advanced Material Testing Laboratory is equipped for its role as both a space for hands-on education and as a resource for cutting-edge research in the area of material science. It contains a range of equipment and technical support staff for the testing of material samples. Students can manipulate the interior space of the experimental environment with various materials and test the result to determine how color, surface textures, shade devices, lighting systems, and similar factors change the climate and perception of the space.

Accreditation

The Woodbury University Master of Interior Design (MID) professional degree program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and is designed to meet the educational requirements for Interior Design certification in California.

Woodbury University’s MID program also prepares graduates to complete both the NCIDQ and the IDEX exams. Though our program meets the educational requirements in all 50 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and Canadian provinces, students who wish to practice in a location outside of California may or may not have additional non-educational requirements to fulfill prior to applying for a certificate or registration status in that location.

Prior to enrollment, prospective students are strongly encouraged to review the Master of Interior Design (MID) professional licensure webpage to determine whether our MID program meets the educational requirements for certification/registration in the location(s) they wish to practice.

Woodbury University would like to assist prospective and current students with navigating this process. Please contact Admissions at [email protected] or 818-252-5221 for help.

For more information about accreditation, go to the About page.