The First Learning Based Project Has Been Implemented on Interior Design
June 14, 2023, 9:36 a.m.

On May 17, 2023, the Department of Architectural Engineering at the College of Engineering conducted a workshop entitled “Interior Design: Teaching and Implementation _ A Proposal of Developing Strategies According to Based Learning Project”, at the Department of Architectural Engineering’s building. Dr. Nabaz Ibraheem Mohammed, the Vice President of the University of Duhok for Students Affairs, Dr. James Hassado Haido, the Dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. Rana Fathi Farhan, the Head of the Department of Architectural Engineering, a number of teachers and students of the College of Engineering, along with a number of media correspondents attended the workshop.

For the purpose of discussing teamwork and site-work of the 4th stage students as a part of the based learning project, and also identifying the methods that has been used for implementing styles of interior design in reality, this workshop took place. Also, it aimed to discuss new possibilities of developing the methods of teaching interior design in the College of Engineering, Department of Architecture for the next year.

Regarding the project, due to the need of preparing the students to be skilled in terms of real practical implementation rather than only drawing or sketching skills, this project came to reality. It was implemented under the supervision of two teachers of the Department of Architectural Engineering, Mrs. Marwa Mohammed Saeed, Lecturer Assistant, and Mr. Naram Murqus, Lecturer. The total number of the undergraduate students at stage 4 at this department is 33, which all participated in this project. 3 groups were set: each consisted of 11 students. And each was determined to work on one sort of the common styles in interior design domain. The overall period of this project work, including planning, setting ideas, practical work and implementing the ideas adopted, was nearly 2 months. During this period, the students were the center of the work and were involved in all of the processes of implementation, such as designing the decors theoretically, purchasing and choosing fabrics, lighting and needed materials, handling with the workers, and engineering the final results.

At the beginning of the workshop, Mrs. Marwa, specialist in interior design from the Glasgow University, School of Art, Britain, presented an introduction of the workshop and the project. She clarified that the main idea of this workshop came from that the architectural study experiment of interior design is incomplete without engaging into the practical part. So, it needs to have practical implementation too along with theoretical study and drawing-based learning. During her part from the presentation, Mrs. Marwa went through the styles of interior design mentioning that the beginning of interior design goes back to the Prehistoric Period including cave painting, and primitive designs during Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Gothic, Early Christian and Byzantine architecture. Interior design also included using primitive furniture and natural materials, like: wood, mud and animal skins in creating comfortable spaces. Some of the common styles at interior design are Victorian, Bohemian, Neoclassic, Contemporary, Mediterranean and Industrial styles.

While at his part, Mr. Naram showed that the beginning of this project came from a trial of last year by the staff of Interior Design when they designed a space with Bohemian style and this try succeeded. This gave the inspiration of this year's learning-based project. This project changed the learning process from individual work to teamwork, as the first experience in all over Kurdistan and Iraq. He finally concluded the presentation displaying the work steps done by the students.

After that, a questionnaire prepared by the organizing committee presented to the academic staff of the Architectural Engineering Department for the aim of setting up the plan of teaching interior design for the next year with its relevant methods. Then, all of the attendants went through an exhibition set for shedding light on the 3 designs implemented at this year's project by the students with the supervisors. The designs included Victorian, Contemporary and Industrial styles; along with the last year's implemented Bohemian style.

One of the students participated in this project, called Amed Jambali Jameel, at Stage 4, mentioned that this experience has helped the students in facing the challenges of designing and how to manage different cases engineers may encounter in future job opportunities.

Most importantly, for the sake of reforming the interior design at our society, it was recommended by the organizing committee to depend on the right criteria at any designing process to have more convenient results and avoid the false implementation of any style.

UOD Media; May 22, 2023

Fatima Mahmood

Photos: Mohammed AbdulKareem