Bachelor of Interior Architecture/Design, B.I.A.
While the architect typically focuses on building form and external profiles, relationships between buildings and landscape, and interior spatial organization and sequence, the interior architect/designer typically focuses on the interior spaces of buildings. Interior architects create the specific character of spaces for human use and enjoyment. As professionals, they must therefore understand the important role of materials, colors, textures, and light in the creation of interior spaces that respond to the physical, social, psychological, and cultural needs of building users. Working with scales that range from that of the object (furniture and light fixtures) to that of the complex whole (ordering systems and spatial sequence), interior architects require a knowledge of the experiential, the tectonic, the technical, and the theoretical.
The commonalities between the disciplines of architecture and interior architecture provides the context for students in Marywood’s architecture and interior architecture program to share professional core courses during the first two years of study, including the foundation design studios and digital media and the history of architecture courses.
B.I.A. (Four-year Degree) Program Requirements
First-year curriculum: 29 credits
| ARCH 110 | Foundation Design I | 4 |
| ARCH 112 | Introduction to the Designed Environment?And Design Thinking | 3 |
| IARC 324 | History of Interior Architecture | 3 |
| ENGL 160 | Composition and Rhetoric | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 13 |
Spring 1
Second-year curriculum: 36 credits
Fall 2
Spring 2
IARC 220A
| | 6 |
| ARCH 225 | History and Theory of Architecture III | 3 |
ENGL XXX
| English-above-300 | 3 |
| | |
SOC XXX
| Social Science Elective | 3 |
| Or | |
PSYC XXX
| Social Science Elective | 3 |
| | |
GE XXX
| General Elective | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 18 |
Third-year curriculum: 36 credits
Fall 3
| IARC 310A | Interior Architecture Studio V | 6 |
| IARC 313 | Building Structures and Systems | 3 |
LANG XXX
| Foreign language I | 3 |
MATH XXX
| Mathematics | 3 |
HIST XXX
| History Elective | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 18 |
HIST XXX: Global if Global Requirement has not been fulfilled previously
Spring 3
| IARC 320A | Interior Architecture Studio VI | 6 |
| IARC 322A | Materials and Methods | 3 |
LANG XXX
| Foreign language I | 3 |
| | |
IARC XXX
| Program Elective | 3 |
| Or | |
ARCH XXX
| Program Elective | 3 |
| | |
SCIENCE
| Science Elective | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 18 |
Fourth-year curriculum: 30 credits
Fall 4
| IARC 410A | Interior Architecture Studio VII | 6 |
PHIL XXX
| Philosophy above 200 | 3 |
RST XXX
| Religious Studies | 3 |
| | |
IARC XXX
| Program Elective | 3 |
| Or | |
ARCH XXX
| Program Elective | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 15 |
Spring 4
| IARC 420A | Interior Architecture Studio VIII | 5 |
| ARCH 462 | Professional Practice | 3 |
| ART 218 | Art in the Modern Era | 3 |
HIST XXX
| History Elective | 3 |
DEAN 075
| Degree Candidacy | 0 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 15 |
Total Credit Hours: 132