Spaces ‘speak’ to us and they ‘speak’ with us; spatial and visual design conveys atmosphere, history and values; it either fosters or hinders social interaction and shapes our vision of how we envisage living together.

On the Master’s programme in Interior Design & Visual Communication, you will learn to understand the communicative possibilities of architecture and the spatial potential of visual communication, and you will learn to design appealing spaces yourself – on every scale.

Combining interior design and visual communication within a single degree programme offers you the best of both worlds: as a spatial designer, you will learn to harness the possibilities of visual communication; as a visual designer, you will learn to design within a spatial dimension. Working in small groups of up to 20 persons, you will learn to conceive and design spaces of all kinds in terms of their atmosphere, identity, materiality and how we navigate them. The course explores the full spectrum of permanent and temporary, physical and virtual, public and private spaces.

In terms of typology, this encompasses spaces for concentration and remembrance, as well as spaces characterised by a high density of information and a mix of uses. From spaces for education and learning, for the catering and hospitality industries, for retail and presentation, for transport and transit, right through to places to linger in public spaces. The curriculum also includes developing narratives and embedding them within spaces, thereby enabling their users to have multi-layered social, cognitive and sensory experiences. Last but not least, you will learn that design tasks always begin by posing fundamental questions about people and their motivations: How does perception become information? How do signs work, how does communication work? How do we orient ourselves in space? How do we make decisions? How do places come into being?  

In the three individually supervised, semester-based design studios, specific design briefs are developed collaboratively. The Forum promotes knowledge-building and exchange between lecturers and students. The Design Research module focuses on methodological analysis and creativity techniques, whilst the Trend Lab examines current and future social developments.

Technical courses provide comprehensive skills in new materials, digital design and lighting design – usually integrated into specific design projects. Whilst seminars on topics such as narration, memory, the construction of the everyday world and curatorial studies provide a theoretical foundation, excursions, studio visits and exhibition visits serve to connect students with current practice and facilitate joint reflection on it.

Target audience:

Students with a bachelor’s degree in interior design, architecture, visual communication or graphic design, as well as students from related disciplines such as landscape architecture, product design, etc.

The course deepens your theoretical and practical specialist knowledge and helps you develop the ability to work independently, combined with the skills to lead a team. As a graduate, you will be ideally equipped to take on key roles in international projects as innovative, interdisciplinary designers – in design or architecture firms, in the arts, culture and events sector, in the public sector, in retail and tourism, or even as independent experts.