Studying Interior Design at CAT is always full of lots of fun projects and activities – like these ones!

Each year, CAT’s Interior Design program implements three interesting approaches to get students to explore topics like the ‘History of Design’, the ‘Elements and Principles of Design’ and ‘Colour Theory’.

PROJECT | 1

In the first project, students research and adapt historic motifs as resources for the design of contemporary items such as wall tiles or textiles.
They collect ten images of carefully documented historical motifs from India, Southeast Asia or Islamic origins and then choose three of these motifs to adapt and inspire a new primary motif for textile, wallcovering or a set of tiles.

This project allows students to explore design in context and see how history informs and influences designs today.

PROJECT | 2

When learning about design theories such as the elements and principles of design, we might speak about elements such as line, pattern, shape or texture in a 2-dimensional example. However, designers explore and implement the various elements + principles of design in 3-dimensional environments. In this project, students explore some of these concepts while exploring physical barriers, contrasting forms and connectivity through 3D modeling.

Initially, each student is given an element of design such as “form” and explores it in a 3D manner by layering, stacking, rolling, and folding, paper. They then explore how to implement one of these 3D elements in spatial development while paring it with a principle of design, such as “rhythm” and a descriptive verb such as “merge”.

PROJECT | 3

In a third project, students explored how to manipulate space using colour, by creating a model and applying colour with other elements and principles of design to demonstrate how designers can alter the perceived size and proportions of an enclosure.

“While each of these projects seem abstract to students in the beginning of the process, as the project progress, students realize they begin to leave their preconceived notions of what the outcome might be and live in the creative process of implementing and experimenting with design theories,” explains Jennifer Yeo, Interior Design Department Head.