Dezeen promotion: the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam is accepting applications to study on its Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design (MIARD) course.

The Piet Zwart Institute's two-year MIARD postgraduate course is set up to provide Bachelor students with a further course in interior architecture.

Enrolled students will undertake four thematic design projects as well as work on their self-directed graduation project during their second year of study.

Work by current students and alumni has been presented at international design and architecture events such as Dutch Design Week and Tent London.

A group of students showed a collection of kitchen products that included patterned rolling pins to make edible plates and a meat grinder that squeezes out biodegradable bowls during Milan design week earlier this year.

The institute is part of the Willem de Kooning Academy, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Applications will be considered from Bachelor students with a degree in Interior Architecture, Interior Design, Spatial Design or Architecture.

The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2014. Visit the Piet Zwart Institute website to find the application documents and for more details about how to apply.

Keep reading for more information from the Piet Zwart Institute:

Piet Zwart Institute - Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design [MIARD]

Open for Applications: Deadline 31 January 2014

Welcome to the Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design [MIARD] at the Piet Zwart Institute – an international postgraduate programme that is part of the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University, located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The accredited small-scale programme is full-time and structured over two years.

At MIARD, we view the production of the interior as a multidisciplinary practice. Our programme is motivated by a design-research methodology that views interior architecture as an applied synthesis - integrating critical design practice, history, theory and technical skills through both digital and analogue means, specialised modules and self-directed research on the basis of a bottom-up strategy towards learning and innovation. We investigate making as a research and design process by mixing parameters, such as strategies and systems, techniques and tools, materials and technology, as well as other relevant and unexpected programmatic and cultural issues. As the practice of interior architecture continues to mature, we examine its performance and potential in the built environment at various scales and conditions to shape and advance the future of cities, neighbourhoods, buildings and their spaces, and for the communities and people that live in them.

Our students are trained to excel as a new generation of designers. Projects are researched in a dynamic atelier setting with highly equipped facilities working together with a diverse faculty of established architects, interior architects, designers, scholars and other specialists. Entrepreneurial practice and networking is encouraged throughout the programme to support and launch a student's design career. Intrinsic to this Masters is a specialisation in Retail Design.

Based in Rotterdam, a dynamic European capital of architecture and design, we plan projects directly with and for the city and local affiliations, as well as actively participate at well-known international design platforms. We offer public events in the form of lectures, exhibitions, field excursions, and interdisciplinary workshops. Our students have access to extensive university and outside resources, fostering collaborative opportunities with specialists from peripheral disciplines.

Programme approach

MIARD situates itself firmly in applied-research, critical reflection and the professional field of interior architecture. It operates from the point of view that an educational master's program must be adaptable to a variety of external forces and should resist institutional idleness.

We aim to foster graduates who are experts in the field of interiors and to excel as designers. A designer whose practice can modify to cultural, technological and industry changes and set precedents for new and innovative methods of operating. We work with the reality that the profession of the interior architect is a young practice, historically framed between the disciplines of architecture and product/furniture design. As our discipline matures, the programme plan is to contribute to its emerging identity as a relevant and necessary profession with its own theoretical, historical and research policies.

Making further defines the MIARD design approach. It is rooted in the position that interior architecture is about making places in the material-physical world and that interiors and its constituents (analogue or digital) play a significant role in forming the identity and logics of the built environment. We investigate making as a bottom-up approach to the creative process and material innovation. This approach allows students to acquire a diversity of essential, advanced and inventive skills as designers.

We stay involved and contribute to the professional field by working with noted and award-winning international staff and guest tutors. The program participates at national and international design events, conferences, competitions, and we host an active public lecture series throughout the academic year. Current students' and alumni's work have been presented at international design and architecture platforms, such as Milan Design Week, Dutch Design Week, Sunlab, TENTLondon, and their design projects have received extensive international press recognition with publications in Domus, Frame, Dezeen, and Designboom, among others.

Consequently, the interior architect needs to be someone who shapes, informs and advances the discipline and it's meaning through critical and meticulous analysis of the role of the interior and its conditions in contemporary society, and furthermore he or she needs to understands the scope and potential of the interior's role in a larger social, political and historical context.

Core teaching staff, visiting tutors and guest lecturers

Ruth Baumeister, Bart de Beer, Herman van Bergeijk , Jan Boelen, Sander Boer, Silvio Carta, Amélia Desnoyers, Bob Dinwiddy, Gabriella Fiorentini, Nuno Fontarra, Ulf Hackauf, Deborah Hauptman, Kai van Hasselt, Lisa Hassanzade, MarkDavid Hosale, Jos de Krieger, Maartje Lammers, Edwin Larkens, Sang Lee, Marta Male-Alemany, Michiel van Malenstein, Ilaria Mazzoleni, Lutz Mürau, Cristina Murphy, Yukiko Nezu, Mauro Parravicini, Brian Peters, Frank Schoeman, Gerrit Schilder, Tanja Smeets, Catherine Somze, Alex Suarez, Eline Strijkers, Aynav Ziv, Cristina Murphy, Mauro Parravicini, Frank Schoeman, Eline Strijkers, Robert Thiemann, Füsun Türetken, UXUS, Thomas Vailly, Dries Verbruggen, Francesco Veenstra, Robbert de Vrieze, Petar Zaklanovic.

Thematic design projects

Over the course of two years, students will take four Thematic Design Projects that are the core of the curriculum. These projects explore and open-up themes relevant to the field of interior architecture and other related and contemporary forms of design practice. One of four of these main design projects will be dedicated to the specialisation of Retail Design.

Thematic Design Projects are lead by either a core tutor, a team of core tutors, and/or guest tutors, who come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Whether an architect, designer, interior designer, artist or retail expert these specialists offer advanced insights into contemporary design practices and issues relevant to the professional field.

The Thematic Design Project structure offers students a framework for reflection, discussion, joint research and production. In other words, the particular selected theme serves as a matrix for exploring and scrutinising specific interior and built environment practices and broader design challenges. This module aims to develop the students' understanding of their work in relation to others in the professional field and to help them define their design practice/profile within a broader cultural, technical and social context.

Complementary courses, public events, excursions and guest lectures are integrated with the design projects each trimester to provide historical, theoretical, technical, material and industry knowledge, skills and expertise.

If you have questions about the programme and application process please feel contact us at:

Piet Zwart Institute
Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design
P.O. Box 1272
3000 BG Rotterdam
The Netherlands

E-mail: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/PZIMIARD

www.pzwart.wdka.nl