MA in Interior Design

The Interior Design Department at HEAD – Genève, under Javier Fernandez Contreras since January 2018, has developed its academic programme to include the first MA in Interior Design in Switzerland. The new training programme is strongly supported by the professional sector, especially VSI.ASAI (the Swiss Interior Architects Association), since it will contribute to enhancing and giving recognition to a profession in which Switzerland has a long-standing tradition of excellence.

In the last few years, the BA in Interior Design at HEAD – Genève has worked to open the field of interior architecture to a typology of various spaces, domestic, public and commercial. The interior architect profession is currently expanding significantly, due to the trend of transforming existing buildings as well as developing new uses and professional practices, multidisciplinary or hybrid.

HEAD – Genève aims to train interior architects capable of meeting the new challenges that the profession faces. MA graduates will thus be fully operational leaders, capable of managing complex design processes in several areas of intervention of interior architecture, from ecology to heritage, engineering and brand design.

“I am absolutely convinced that interior spaces today really are laboratories of modernity,” says Javier Fernandez Contreras. “In the early 20th century, the idea of modernity was linked to urbanism and architecture. Nowadays, in a fast-changing world, interior spaces are also undergoing constant change, in relation to our contemporary lifestyles. […] Interior architecture must take control of contemporary conditions in the private sphere as well as in interior spaces like shops, museums and airports.”

The Master’s degree will provide fundamental additional skills—technical, managerial, conceptual and creative—for young holders of Bachelor degrees who wish to progress independently in a fast-expanding professional world. The programme is organised in cooperation with the Joint Master’s HES-SO / BFH in Architecture (Geneva, Fribourg, Burgdorf) from Swiss universities and the Ecole Camondo in Paris.

Ultimately, graduates will have the opportunity to apply for membership at REG A (the professional register of Swiss architects). As experts in their field, they will occupy key positions and be capable of anticipating emerging needs and new contemporary lifestyles in private contexts as well as in all dimensions of public and commercial projects.

“In a school like ours, we have to consider strongly the relationship between interior architecture and design, art and the broader society. The various fields have become far more complex. Nowadays, the approach is increasingly holistic rather than segmented and based on a clear separation of business lines. Interior architecture must thus address architecture in all its interactions, inside and outside” says Jean-Pierre Greff, Director at HEAD – Genève.

Open days
Friday, January 18, 2019, 2:30–7pm
Saturday, January 19, 2019, 10am–6pm