A “filing system” for teaching research skills in interior architecture education

Abstract

Creating physical environments for humans, more specifically the design disciplines of interior architecture/design, involves a wide variety of aspects to be considered: material, technical, cultural, psychological, artistic... It is therefore important to provide students with the necessary tools (research skills) not only to address the different types of problems and questions that arise during this creative process, but –ultimately- also to ensure the continuing development of interior architecture as a profession and as an academic discipline through the development of its proper research methods. However, we have been coming across a number of obstacles and challenges in our effort to integrate the teaching of research skills in our interior architecture educational program. Here, we report on our experiences in an ongoing project in which we have tried to tackle these issues by providing students, starting in their first year, with a type of “filing system” in which we have specifically structured the information on relevant research approaches and methods.