Unit LABORATORY OF INTERIOR DESIGN

INTERIOR DESIGN

Code	A002175
CFU	8
Teacher	Paolo Di Nardo
Learning activities	Base
Area	Formazione di base nel progetto
Academic discipline	ICAR/13
Type of study-unit	Obbligatorio (Required)

Cognomi A-L

CFU

8

Teacher

Paolo Di Nardo

Teachers

• Paolo Di Nardo

Hours

• 72 ore - Paolo Di Nardo

Language of instruction

Italian

Contents

The course will be developed around the choice of a design theme proposed by the lecturer, which will become the key to guiding the various activities to which students will be called upon during the year. In particular, the students will be asked to structure a research path in the key of metaproject preparation, delving into the proposed theme and demonstrating the ability to find derivations and thematic relations resulting from their own analysis and disciplinary reading skills. The result of this work is to be the subject of collective and individual presentations to be discussed during the lectures in the first part of the course. In this regard, the mode of working and studying in depth in a collective key must stimulate in the students the ability to interpret points of view and approaches to the subject other than their own and thus enrich their own endowment of knowledge and relative integration to the bibliography proposed by the lecturer as a personal resource.

Reference texts

• Adilova, A., & Shamoi, P. (2024). Aesthetic preference prediction in interior design: Fuzzy approach. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2401.17710 • ArchieInteriors. (2025, marzo). Tendenze illuminazione 2025: la luce sempre più protagonista del design. ArchieInteriors. https://www.archieinteriors.com/tendenze-illuminazione-2025 • ArchieInteriors. (2025, luglio). La ceramica artigianale e interior design: il ritorno. la ceramica entra in scena. ArchieInteriors. https://www.archieinteriors.com/ceramica-artigianale-design-interior • Arnheim, R. (2008). Arte e percezione visiva. Milano: Feltrinelli. • Ashby, S. (2024). Studio Ashby: Home, art, soul. London: Hardie Grant Books. • Biblus ACCA. (2025, maggio). Come usare i materiali per un interior design moderno. Biblus ACCA. https://biblus.acca.it/materiali-interior-design • Biblus ACCA. (2025, maggio). Guida all’illuminazione per il design d’interni: idee, principi e soluzioni con l’AI. Biblus ACCA. https://biblus.acca.it/guida-all-illuminazione-per-il-design-dinterni-idee-principi-e-soluzioni-con-lai • Dabito. (2023). Old brand new: Colorful homes for maximal living. New York: Clarkson Potter. • De Botton, A. (2008). Architettura e felicità. Parma: Guanda. • Di Nardo, P. (2023). Future interior design. AND. Rivista di Architetture, Città e Architetti, 44(2). https://and-architettura.it/index.php/and/article/view/641 • Di Nardo, P. (2011). Design obliquo. Siracusa: LetteraVentidue. • Fezer, J., & Schmitz, M. (2012). Lucius Burckhardt writings. Wien–New York: Springer. • Hara, K. (2015). Ex-formation. Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers. • Karman Italia. (2024). Illuminazione e materiali: guida al design contemporaneo. Storybox – Karman Italia. https://storybox.karmanitalia.it/illuminazione-design-materiali-guida • Lamberton, D. (Ed.). (2025). Brutalist interiors. London: Blue Crow Media. • Mastrigli, G. (a cura di). (2016). Superstudio. Opere 1966-1978. Macerata: Quodlibet Habitat. • Materiali Casa. (2024, ottobre). I trend 2025 per le superfici nell’interior design. Materiali Casa. https://www.materialicasa.it/architettura-e-design/i-trend-2025-le-superfici-nellinterior-design • Mohammadrezaei, E., Makhmutov, A., Rodríguez-Vizcaya, R., & Naser, M. Z. (2024). Systematic review of extended reality for smart built environments lighting design simulations. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2405.06928 • Papanek, V. (2019). Design for the real world. London: Thames and Hudson. • Perec, G. (1989). Specie di spazi. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri. • Pentreath, B. (2024). An English vision. London: Rizzoli. • Potter, N. (2010). Cos’è un designer. Thing places messages. Torino: Codice Edizioni. • Ramstedt, F. (2023). The furnishing handbook. Stockholm: Bonnier Fakta. • Solanski, S. (2019). Why materials matter. Munich: Prestel Publishing. • Spennato, A. (2023). Design e intelligenza artificiale: Una nuova frontiera per l’interior design. AND. Rivista di Architetture, Città e Architetti, 44(2). https://and-architettura.it/index.php/and/article/view/639 • Tinti, L. (2011). Collezionare meraviglia. Sulla Wunderkammer cinque-seicentesca. Bibliomanie.it, 25 (aprile/giugno). • Todd, L. M. (2023). Italian interiors: Rooms with a view. New York: Rizzoli. • Zhang, H., Wu, J., Wu, Y., & Ren, P. (2023). Interactive interior design recommendation via coarse-to-fine multimodal reinforcement learning. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.07287

Educational objectives

The general objective of the Interior Design course is to develop in candidates the ability to methodologically address the phases of analysis, reading, design development and reasoned formulation of an interior design project in a complex manner. In particular, at the end of the course, candidates will be required to be able to develop original design solutions capable of overcoming the challenges and limits imposed by the interior space they will be considering; to be able to demonstrate, through their own project, clear historical and contemporary references discussed within the course; to demonstrate how the research methodology used is visibly reflected in the design methodology employed to demonstrate the ability to work in a team and activate collaborations useful for achieving one's own project objective; to develop an adequate capacity for presentation in terms of the languages and tools used, giving equal importance to the narration of the phases of investigation, process management, project ideas, materials used, expected results

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of the history of design and 20th century European artistic avant-gardes; writing skills; use of the main design editing software for design and architecture; use of graphics editing software (Adobe suite).

Teaching methods

The course is divided into a first phase dedicated to frontal lessons for the introduction of the main historical and cultural references and for the explanations of the semantic variables involved in interior design and the relative use of materials, light and space.
In the second part of the course, instead, there will be lessons in laboratory form dedicated to the collective and individual revision of the students' work. Interior studies will be hosted throughout the year as testimonials of 'design culture'.

Other information

None

Learning verification modality

The examination tests require students to present the work necessary to achieve the course's objectives. The lecturers on the committee comment on and analyse the arguments presented, asking the candidate to explain references to the texts in the bibliography presented during the course. The final assessment will be based on: • active participation and contribution to discussions (20%); • results of exercises (30%); • final interior design project (50%), with particular attention to the management of scales and proportions, methodological consistency, and graphic representation.

Extended program

The research work will form the indispensable basis for the subsequent conduct of the exercises required as course output. Students will be required to carry out two types of exercises:
The Language of Space
The first exercise is intended to improve students' ability to read, analyse and narrate space in a pre-design manner. Candidates will be asked to identify a space of their choice, unique in terms of affective or symbolic importance, and on this produce two types of representation.
Written. The space is to be described in detail only through the writing of a text. The reference to be taken into account is Georges Perec's text, Species of Spaces. The originality of the text, the completeness in letting the reader perceive the architectural and relational dimension, the quality of the presentation and the verbal presentation will be assessed.
The language of materials-Antiprimadonna
Antiprimadonna is one of the classic exercises of Basic Design courses, created by Thomas Maldonado in his preparatory courses in Ulm, is usually dedicated to the study of the relationship, both by contrast and harmony, between backgrounds, colour and pattern. The name derives from the objective of the exercise, which calls for no one element in the composition to prevail over the others. A type of exercise dedicated to training a sensitivity for balance and competitive dynamism in the field of visual design.
Students on the course are asked to reinterpret the exercise in the classical manner, but using compositions of different materials pursuing the same objective of balanced composition. In particular, the exercise is to be developed by interpreting three different compositions oriented to elicit different sensory experiences, hot, cold, transparency.
Each composition will then have to be photographed using different light conditions: natural (morning), natural (evening), artificial warm, artificial cold.
The design of the space
The third and most important exercise is to be understood as a working test to be carried out in groups of a maximum of
3 members. The theme illustrated at the beginning of the course is to be tackled by analysing the various aspects of the design process, from the preliminary analysis through to the presentation of possible design hypotheses and the drafting of the final project composed in its final form in the examination paper. The work envisages the organisation of the group as a set of roles, capable of tackling the theme in a multidisciplinary key, the organisation of successive presentations during the lessons that will be tackled and assessed in the form of group reviews, the composition of the final paper giving space to the representations that the group will deem most suitable in terms of quality and completeness, to the narrative of the project developed.

Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile

11

Cognomi M-Z

CFU

8

Teacher

Andrea Dragoni

Teachers

• Andrea Dragoni

Hours

• 72 ore - Andrea Dragoni

PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION

Code	A002174
CFU	4
Teacher	Paolo Belardi
Teachers	Eliana Martinelli (Codocenza)
Hours	36 ore (Codocenza) - Eliana Martinelli
Learning activities	Affine/integrativa
Area	Attività formative affini o integrative
Academic discipline	ICAR/14
Type of study-unit	Obbligatorio (Required)
Language of instruction	Italian
Contents	The course is organized into theoretical lectures and design exercises focusing on the topic of composition by defining and identifying the principles of form relationships that can reoccur at various design scales.
Reference texts	Spangaro C. (a cura di), Aldo Rossi Design 1960-97, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 2022. Ingold T., Making. Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milano 2019. Loos A., Parole nel vuoto. Adelphi Edizioni, Milano 1980 (ed. originale 1921). Munari B., Da cosa nasce cosa, Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 2017. Perec G., Specie di spazi. Bollati Boringheri, Torino 2020 (ed. originale 1974). Purini F., Comporre l’architettura, Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 2000. Rossi A., Autobiografia scientifica, Pratiche Editrice, Milano 1999. Semerani L., Incontri e Lezioni. Attrazione e contrasto tra le forme. Clean Edizioni, Napoli 2013. Further detailed references will be given for the diverse exercises proposed.
Educational objectives	The course seeks to provide methodologies and evaluative strategies for enhancing design skills at both the architectural and item design scales through the mastery of compositional techniques.
Prerequisites	Basic knowledge of architectural drawing and design history
Teaching methods	The educational activity comprises lectures, guided exercises, revisions, and opportunities for students to share their various work processes. Revisions will be conducted both individually and collectively, involving all students in the laboratory. The lectures will address the theory and techniques of architectural composition.
Other information	None
Learning verification modality	The examination evaluates the procedure undertaken over the semester through different mandatory individual and/or group practical exercises, referencing the recommended texts and theoretical resources studied.
Extended program	The course is organized into various activities: lectures, some of which are by invited professors; extempore exercises; in-situ exercises (outside of the classroom); laboratory activities in the classroom; and collective corrections and revisions. To carry out all these laboratory activities, students need to have the right tools for hand-drawing and realizing models. The course aims to give the students the basic tools for starting a design process in its analytical, interpretive, and compositional aspects.
Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile	Sustainable cities and communities