Postgraduate in Interior Space Design. Work Spaces

Far from the uniformity of the past, the new corporate, collaborative and formative work environments are alive, occupied by organizations that change at the fast pace of  new technologies and new habits and mentalities of users. New work environments raise questions directly related to the constant progress of the society of our time.

With all this progress taking place, the role of the interior designer is crucial. There is a need in companies, institutions, co workings and training centres, for creating spaces that, besides being functional, are also healthy and stimulate creativity. The objective is creating suitable environments for the people who use them, and which reflect a certain work culture and express the differential values ​​of the corporation  they belong to.

The programme of this postgraduate course supports the future professional to face the challenges of design applied to the work spaces that, together with housing, are the spaces we inhabit during most of our life time.

During the course, methodologies related to the creative process of interior design, extrapolated to other areas, and covering theoretical and technical aspects are intensively exercised. These competences are applied in the final project of the course that is developed on a real place and with a real client.

The contact with the reality of the industry is intensified by visits to buildings and offices and exemplary professional cabinets, as production centres of equipment for the workspace, where companies of the industry take centre stage and transmit their valuable background. In addition, the course has a list of specialized professors with extensive professional experience and the contribution of international prestigious lecturers.

The Postgraduate in Interior Space Design. Work Spaces (programme, projects, faculty, conferences, visits to companies of the industry) can be found on this website, and can also be tracked at Facebook, and at Instagram, as well as in the blog, which includes reference texts, and other documents of interest related to the course thematic.

 Thematic modules

• Perception of the interior space
  • Subject 1: Aspects related to the sensitive perception of the interior
    • Light as an asset in the conceptualisation of space
    • New textures, new meanings
    • About colour
    • Atmospheres
       
  • Subject 2: User-centred design
    • Healthy interiors
    •  Inclusive design. Universal accessibility
    •  Biophilic design. Analogies and mimesis
    •  Active ergonomics
  • Subject 3: Construction and form
    • Elements and systems.
    • Processes.

Individual and team work: Development of a self-contained space prototype for concentration; informal meeting; or relax in the work environment.
 

• Spatial configurations in the work environment
  • Subject 1: Spatial organization strategies
    • Historical evolution and recent geography of office buildings
    • Architectural devices and work organization in relation to new behaviours
    • Organization of the space. Project operators
    • Spatial configurations: Work stations; Common spaces; Informal meeting; Focus
  • Subject 2: Basic criteria for planning
    • Components: circulation; teamwork; individual work; meetings; exchanges; etc.
    • Zoning and occupancy ratios.
    • Mechanization of the environment.
  • Subject 3: Corporate interior design. Excite from the beginning
    • Communication and interior design
    • Design for the company —design for users

Teamwork: practice on different spatial configurations in the workplace. Various schemes are developed including: dimensional adjustments, by circulation and occupation diagrams (includes furniture hypotheses); basic layout of the various systems of facilities; expression of the character and atmosphere of the space related to corporate identity.
 

• Project
  • Equipment for the workplace
    • Subject 1: Furniture equipment
      • Choice of contract furniture and personalization. Own furniture design.
• Subject 2: Lighting
  • Choice and integration of luminaires in the lighting project.
     
• Subject 3: Applied graphics
  • Corporate image
  • Signage
     
• Subject 4: Materials and constructive elements of the system
  • Coating materials. Cataloguing and homologation of products
  • Production processes of partitions and accessories

The evaluation of this module will be integrated into the evaluation of the Final Project. The professors of this module will join the project tutorials as consultants.
 

• Space conditioning techniques
  • Subject 5: Connected spaces
    • Voice and data management; Internet of things; Virtual reality; Augmented reality.
  • Subject 6: Mechanization of the environment
    • Regulation criteria for acoustic, light and thermal comfort
    • Safety and prevention. Protection against fire
    • Maintenance and replacement; operational services

The evaluation of this module will be integrated into the evaluation of the Final Project. The professors of this module will join the project tutorials as consultants.
 

Project development

• Project to implement a workspace in a pre-existing location.

  • The Final Project of the Postgraduate in Interior Space Design. Work Spaces diploma consists in solving the implantation of an interior space for corporate, collaborative or formative uses.
  • The project is approached from a contemporary perspective, realistic and at the same time innovative, putting into play advanced criteria on the management of resources in the workplace and its impact on the design of the interior space.
  • The definition level of the project goes from the initial conceptualization, through the executive development, to the definition of the details which justify the technical solvency of the proposal.
  • The project focuses on a real place, a preexisting building with unique characteristics, and a contrasted programme whose data are taken from the real needs of the companies.

Throughout these years, the briefing of companies such as: La Caixa works manager; the Barcelona Education Consortium; the Morillas Asociados branding company; the theater group La Perla 29; the multinational service company AGBAR; the Arrels Foundation; the Sant Pau Private Foundation; the design editor Santa & Cole; the advertising company SCPF-SOFA; the RACC; the RCD Espanyol de Barcelona.

The programmes for these companies have been developed in outstanding buildings in Barcelona such as the World Trade Center, in the port; the Noucentista schools Pere Vila, next to the Arc de Triumph; the Media-Tic building in the 22 @ technology neighborhood; the AGBAR tower, by Jean Nouvel; a pavilion of the Modernist Precinct of the Hospital de Sant Pau; the set of rationalist architecture of Belloch; the RCDE Stadium and other good examples of Barcelona urban architecture of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We can say that, given the case, the projects would be prepared for its executive development and its subsequent implementation.

Other activities

• Visits to buildings and corporate interiors and to companies producing specialized equipment for the workspace.
• Various conferences given by outstanding professionals in the national and international context of the industry. The course has counted with the participation of numerous internationally renowned lecturers, such as Sevil Peach, Roland Bouroullec, Iñaki Ábalos, Alejandro Zaera, Carlos Ferrater, Fermín Vázquez (b720), Nic Bewick (Michelle de Lucchi Studio), Francisco Vázquez (3G) Office), Roberto Feo and Rosario Hurtado (The Last Scream), Gerard Sanmartí (La Granja Design) and Raphael Gielgen (Vitra), among others.

• Study in depth the specific production characteristics of various design methods in connection with work space.
• Discover the requirements of corporate entities.
• Value the impact of new technologies on the fitting out of physical space.
• Assimilate emerging social and cultural values, which form the basis of implementation criteria, by studying the disciplines they consist of: ergonomics, ecology, economics, sociology, anthropology and their impact on the design process.
• Use knowledge creatively, as befitting the very notion of design.

• Understanding of conditionings that intervene in the implementation of working spaces - technology, new social values, new behaviours, and business objectives.
• Sensitivity when granting a differentiating nature to space through the mastery of light, subject matter, and colour.
• Through the art of distribution strategies, ability to transfer those conditionings to the organisation of spaces.
• In-depth knowledge of the different parts of a workspace.
• Mastering of the basic dimensions of parts and elements and control of space remodelling systems.
• Control of projects' professional planning and work phases.
• Ability to solve complex problems and provide solutions.
• Effective time management.
• Ability to enhance the projects' value through a polished graphic and oral presentation.
• Being proactive beyond conventional solutions.