First-Class Final Project

Background ‘First-Class Final Project’ is an essay by Roger Kemp, Phoebe Whitman, and Anthony Fryatt, published in Interior Educators (IE), Issue 5, April 2020. This edition, ‘The First’, examines the way in which the classification of first-class honours is evaluated in Interior Design programs. In this work, Kemp, Whitman, and Fryatt contribute to an ongoing discussion around methods and techniques for design education, with a specific focus on the pedagogy of final year design education. Contribution This article poses the question of what constitutes a ‘first class’ design project at final year bachelor honours level education through a comparison of three exemplary projects completed over the past 10 years at the one institution. It seeks to identify consistencies and differences in expectation and delivery relative to changes in technology and social, political, and cultural context. It opens up a disciplinary conversation at an international level that enables an ongoing exchange and benchmarking across different institutions all working at a similar academic level and contributing to the development of the discipline of Interior Design. Significance IE: Studios is an online journal from the United Kingdom focusing on pedagogy in interior design education and is currently in its fifth edition. The editorial panel for the journal comprises of leading academics from the UK and Australia. The journal reaches out to a network of over fifty-member interior design programs from universities across the UK. The journal provides an outlet for academics to discuss specific teaching and learning approaches for interior design education.