An Interpretive and Contextual Approach to Interior Design Education

The teaching and learning of interior design processes are collaborative exercises situated in experience in the phenomenological sense. Researchers interested in evolving interior design philosophies need to understand the underlying values inherent in existing theories and the contradictions that occur when these theories oppose actual interior design processes as they are taught and explored in the studio environment. This paper is organised along three streams. First, the rationale situates the dichotomies that currently exist in design theory production and pedagogy. Second, the study methodology and data analysis are described. Finally, consideration is given to how design pedagogies could be restructured in light of these findings and how theory and practice can be viewed as symbiotic parts of a whole rather than as theoretical opposites.