B.Arch., M.Arch.
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BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design for Health and Wellbeing
- Duration: 3 or 4 years full-time
- Placement year: Optional 1 year
- Course code: KW13 (UCAS)
- Institution code: A66 (UCAS)
Overview
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design for Health and Wellbeing focuses on the re-integration of people’s health and wellbeing into everyday environments: where we live, where we work, where we learn and where we relax, both physically and mentally.
We can easily all think of “unhealthy” environments we've experienced, would we recognise the opposite? During this course you'll place human-centred design at the heart of everything you do to transform environmental experiences from debilitation to invigoration.
Interior Architecture and Design for Health and Wellbeing course information
During the course you'll learn and apply new knowledge in the design and planning of healthy spaces and places, taking into consideration their use and the ever-evolving role of new technologies.
You'll graduate from this course as a designer with a complete understanding of the impacts design choices have on health and wellbeing. As well as the necessary tools, knowledge and skills to support yourself in creating healthier places for all of us – for now and for the future.
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design for Health and Wellbeing provides you with the opportunity to learn to plan and design environments which support and promote health and well-being. The environments will also take into consideration the physical and mental welfare of the users.
While studying on this course you'll be able to recognise, understand and influence the links between people’s health and the spaces that we all live in. From historical, social, cultural and political perspectives, public health has had a greater impact on the design of our environment than anything else.
If you want to:
- know more about the diverse principles that underpin the human-centred design process and can help determine healthier environments.
- understand how public health and design can be brought together to create better places at all levels, from private dwellings to public realm.
- challenge and transform the well-being of our society now and for the future using a people-first approach that takes advantage of new technologies.
- demonstrate you passion for using creative design to create healing places for all.
Then you'll want to study BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design for Health and Wellbeing.
Placement year
All undergraduate courses at AUB offer an optional placement year, to be taken between your second and third years of study.
If you’re unsure about this optional placement, you don’t need to decide now. Once you’re here and studying with us, the course team will discuss the placement options with you, so when the time comes, you can make a decision that’s right for you.
If you’re required to have a Student Visa to study in the UK, it won’t be possible to undertake the one-year placement option; there’ll be other opportunities for you to engage with industry during your study at AUB.
Level 4 (first year)
Level 4 aims to generate a fundamental understanding of space: its analysis, theoretical manipulation, habitation, technological construction, materiality and scale.
All of the units delivered in the first year of the course aim to consider the totality of interior space. You'll learn the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and manipulate those spaces to create the environments required by the project briefs.
The course team considers that this is the best preparation to have for the very dynamic and changeable nature of practice in this discipline.
Modules
Units to be taught alongside BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design
- Design Process and Communication
- Socially Conscious Design
- Integrating Technology
Level 5 (second year)
Level 5 aims to build on learning undertaken at Level 4 and encourages you to investigate your own methods of realisation and visualisation in a range of more complex design projects. At this stage, the learning will start to focus more on health and wellbeing, an understanding of specialist knowledge and the application of design principles.
Modules
Units specialising in Health and Wellbeing
- Contemporary Healthcare: more than hospitals
- Health On the High Street
- Wellbeing for Positive Lifestyles
At the end of second year, there will be the option of progressing straight into third year or taking an extended work placement and progressing on your return.
Level 6 (third year)
Level 6 – the final year – provides you with an opportunity to bring all your learning, skills and knowledge together in the production of a package of professionally orientated, creative work. The work will examine and emphasise your chosen research theme.
Modules
Units for which student will design independent projects via discussion with unit tutors, enabling a strong personal focus on a specific area of research and design within Health and Wellbeing.
- Explorative Practice
- Dissertation
- Final Portfolio Project
Course Team
FHEA
MA, BA (Hons), FHEA
BA (Hons)
"You’ll graduate from this course as a designer with a good understanding of the health impacts of your professional work and be equipped with skills, knowledge and creativity to help you deliver healthier places in the future.
You'll use your knowledge and creativity to facilitate the integration of health and well-being into the design of environments, spaces and healing places that put people at the heart of transforming the wellbeing of our society."
Application process
Once you've found the perfect Undergraduate course, you can apply to study via UCAS, including direct entry applications to second and third year.
When applying through UCAS, use the institution code A66 for courses taught at Arts University Bournemouth. For courses based at Bournemouth and Poole College, use code B49. We'll then use your completed UCAS form to make decisions about your application. You can find out more on entry requirements in our apply section.
When you apply to one of our courses, it's important that you help us get a good picture of both you and your work – so you'll need a great personal statement. We want to know more about why you're interested in the course, your key influences, and what you hope to do after your studies.
If you're invited for an interview, many of our courses will ask to see a portfolio of your work so we can get more insight into your ideas and abilities. To help you, we've created guidelines outlining what we expect from your portfolio for each course.
The fee that you pay the Arts University Bournemouth provides the necessary equipment and training for you to complete your course.
You may also choose to buy some items of personal equipment such as a laptop or tablet computer, but this is not required; desktop and laptop computers are available for you to use in common study areas, including a loan system in the Library.
If you decide to undertake an optional placement year, the tuition fee is £1,850. This is subject to inflationary increases based on government policy, and providing you progress through the course in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).
For the majority of our courses, we'll ask you to digitally submit a portfolio as part of the application process.
Portfolios should show examples of your work – both finished and work in progress – that demonstrate your interests and skills. We expect to see around 10 slides/images in your portfolio that shows your identity as an artist.
If we ask for a digital portfolio then we'll give you 30 days to submit it. Sometimes we'll need a portfolio submitted quickly if there's a UCAS set deadline approaching, but if you need more time, just let us know and we'll try to help.
We've created specific portfolio guidelines for each of our courses, you can take a look at these below.
If you've applied to study an online postgraduate (MA) degree, please refer to the AUB Online portfolio guidelines.
None of our courses currently require an interview.
The only course requiring an audition is BA (Hons) Acting and if you're invited to one you'll have at least 10 days notice.
Studios and resources
Working alongside BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design students you'll use purpose-designed interiors studios and computer suites.
Your base-rooms are supported by extensive technical and digital workshops and the Innovation Studio which includes the latest VR, AR and fabrication technologies and staff expertise.
Interior Architecture and Design Resources
The Interior Architecture and Design resources are categorised into exclusive IAD facilities and shared spaces with the...
Design Studio
You'll be working in a design studio, complete with computer suite and team workspace
The Library
The Library at AUB holds an excellent range of print and online collections
Lecture Theatres and Seminar Rooms
We have a number of lecture theatres and seminar rooms scattered around campus to assist students with their studies.
3D Workshop
Our 3D workshops with manual and digital manufacturing equipment and computers
Drawing Studio
Our iconic blue Drawing Studio is used by student from all courses and was designed by alumnus Sir Peter Cook...
Digital Suites
Our Digital Suites offer a digital post-production facility and digital teaching space.
Central Media Store
The Central Media store houses a diverse array of equipment, offering students the means to craft and capture...
Innovation Studio
The Innovation Studio operates as a lab for creative technologies, a nucleus for start-ups and enterprises and an industry engagement hub.
Printroom
Our printmaking facilities are a hub of creativity on campus and have been inspiring students since 1964.
Letterpress and Bindery
The Letterpress and Bindery studio is a central resource, where students can learn and explore bookbinding and letterpress printing.
Teaching, learning and assessment
The studio, and a studio culture, is central to the ethos of the course. The diversity of the student group brings benefits of cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural experience; you can learn so much from making use of your space.
The course objectives are met by deploying a wide variety of teaching and learning methods including projects, lectures, seminars, group critiques and tutorials. In consultation with the Course Leader, staff are responsible for co-ordinating individual units of study, and for selecting appropriate methods of delivery according to subject matter and student experience.
The methods employed induct you to the disciplines required of a creative practitioner and promote the development of transferable skills.
The study time allocated to each unit in the course incorporates a balance of formal teaching, tutorial support and independent learning. The course is structured progressively to provide increased opportunities for independent learning as you reach the later stages of the course.
The tutor leading the unit will employ a variety of methods of delivery to encourage engagement and participation in the learning process. These will be dependent on the nature of the unit. Throughout the units within a year (and year on year), you are encouraged to gradually become more autonomous, progressively being asked to consider yourself as a professional designer.
Contact hours include all scheduled teaching sessions, but also supervised time in the workshop or studio. In line with national guidance, we include in our calculation of contact hours all the time which is scheduled in the studio for independent study which is also supported by staff (either academic staff, or technicians).
Each unit is assessed separately, and the assessment forms part of the unit. Assessment both provides a measure of your achievement and also gives you regular feedback on how your learning is developing.
You'll receive a final mark for each unit in the form of a percentage, which will be recorded on your formal record of achievement (transcript). Each component of assessment is graded using a notched marking scale, whereby only certain marks are used within each grade. The only marks available within any ten-point band are *2, *5 and *8 (e.g. 62, 65, 68). These marks correspond to a low, mid, and high level of achievement within each grade band.
All learning outcomes must be passed to successfully complete the unit.
On successful completion of your Honours degree course, you'll be awarded a degree classification based on your unit marks. The final classification is determined using all unit marks at Levels 5 and 6 using two different algorithms, which are detailed in the HE Student Regulations. If the two algorithms produce different results, you will be awarded the higher class of degree.
If you've joined Level 6 through either the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) route or having completed a Foundation Degree (FdA), the final classification is determined using only your unit marks at Level 6.
Firstly, through regular review of coursework you'll receive feedback on how your learning is developing towards the achievement of the learning outcomes – formative assessment. This process is delivered through the tutorial and critique experience; by engaging with this process, you'll develop your knowledge and skills.
You can experience the assessment process from an increased personal perspective and make serious critical decisions in conjunction with the teaching staff regarding their peers’ work.
Formative assessment is provided during tutorials where an action plan is formulated to develop your work. Viewings and critiques offer indications of the quality of work and how it relates to the assessment criteria. Formative assessment points will be outlined in the online unit information and within the scheme of work.
The second purpose is to provide a measure of your achievement, in the form of a mark or classification, at the end of a defined period of study, i.e. unit, level, or final award – summative assessment.
What our students do
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design for Health and Wellbeing has been developed based on several years of successful collaborative work between our existing BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design degree and our partners in the NHS, Dorset Integrated Care Partnership, Macmillan and Architects for Health. These collaborations have enabled the regional NHS to develop and realise a strategy of health prevention through bringing health facilities out of signature hospital buildings and into the community – “health on the high street”.
The success and longevity of this partnership has been and continues to be demonstrated through the realisation of projects such as a new “BEACH” unit and Outpatient Assessment Unit, both at Royal Bournemouth Hospital; the “Living Space” social prescribing unit in the Dolphin Centre; the Retreat at Bournemouth University and the Macmillan Unit at Christchurch Hospital.
These are typical examples of the type of projects you'd be involved in and the type of career areas in which you would be highly valued, however, it's important to remember that this isn't a clinical course, it's about design.
AUB students support £250m transformation project at Royal Bournemouth Hospital
University Hospitals Dorset celebrated a new creative working partnership with AUB's Interior Architecture and Design students
Think Big: AUB partnership project with Our Dorset shortlisted for national healthcare award
AUB partnership project with Our Dorset shortlisted for national healthcare award
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design student wins First Prize for palliative care design work
First year BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design student Jasmine Hunt has been awarded first prize for design work
Trips and visits
During the academic year, at least one excursion to London or another UK cultural hub is planned. As London is easily accessible from Bournemouth, students can easily plan excursions to the city's art galleries and museums to supplement their academic work. Professional progress as practitioners depends on primary research.
Trips give students confidence, promote independence and present opportunities for future professional and personal development.
Any additional fees are disclosed before the visit.
Visiting tutors play a key role in the course, as they bring diverse perspectives and unique skill sets, enriching the learning experience and fostering a deeper understanding of the standards and expectations of the creative industries. Industry professionals provide invaluable insights into the creative industry, sharing their expertise and experiences. They conduct workshops, lectures, and participate in critiquing student work, offering constructive feedback from both an education and industry perspective. Their presence can also offer students the opportunity to network and learn about potential career paths, industry trends, and professional practices.
