In 1906, Frank Alvah Parsons established the country’s first interior design curriculum, framing the field as an intellectually rigorous creative force in everyday life. Modern American interior design was both invented at Parsons in the early 20th century and redefined as a social engaged practice at the end of the last century. Today this research-based, design-intensive major gives you a solid foundation for careers in which you create comfortable, imaginative, and intelligently designed interiors. It also prepares you for graduate studies, particularly in the allied fields of Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments: architecture, industrial design, and lighting design.
This program is part of Parsons' School of Constructed Environments (SCE). Learn about the
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Beyond the Classroom
You work with faculty, peers, and outside professionals designing interior environments that reflect an understanding of sustainability, cultural differences, and human needs for comfort and well-being. Courses guide you through the study of materiality and two- and three-dimensional form and space. The studio sequence introduces interior and architectural issues of increasing complexity, and you learn to conceptualize and develop interior designs using hand drawings, physical models, collage, and digital renderings.
Art and design history and theory courses build your research, communication, and conceptual skills.
Design in 3D
Access to New York City’s globally influential firms and showrooms broadens your practice. “AfterTaste,” the program’s international symposium, explores the conceptual boundaries of interior design, bringing notable names such as Penny Sparke, Mayer Rus, Jorge Otero-Pailos, James Auger, and Sabine von Fischer to campus. And Parsons’ long-standing prominence and industry connections give you access to leading interior design firms, museums, galleries, and auction houses.
Future Opportunities
Graduates leave prepared to begin careers or pursue further education in interior design, lighting design, sustainable design, set design, exhibition design, historic preservation, and consulting.
This program is part of Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments (SCE). As a BFA Interior Design student, you benefit from this integrated academic community through access to students and faculty of related making disciplines at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels.