Creative design builds from the inside out.

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A new generation of interior architects is learning to shape the spaces that define our lives, and they are building from the inside out.

The construction cranes crowding the Seattle skyline signal the exploding demand for professionals who can blend design savvy and construction skills to meet 21st-century human needs. This blend of technical skill and artistic flair finds expression in an Interior Architecture degree. “You can get an arts education and have a thriving and viable career that’s artistic in nature and really intersected with technology, architecture, and construction,” says says Christine Bateman, vice president of communications at Cornish College of the Arts.

Department chair Julie Myers, a nationally known leader in interior architecture, founded Cornish’s Interior Architecture department and curriculum to combine hands-on learning and socially engaged design. “Our goal,” she says, “is to engage our students in projects that help cities, neighborhoods, and communities see how design, science, and arts might enhance the quality of life.”

Interior architecture reaches beyond aesthetics to investigate how design can tackle social issues like homelessness. Architects might consult with sociologists, anthropologists and construction industry pros to forge new solutions.

The Interior Architecture Department, the City of Sandpoint, Idaho, and the Eureka Institute recently began work to design concepts to include affordable housing on a 77-acre, mixed-use parcel of land. Their concepts were to include: up to 100 units of “tiny house” affordable housing; wetland wilderness; a small biodynamic farm; a community recreation center; a Waldof K-12 boarding school; up to 100 units of high-density residential housing; and a sustainably designed mix of road/walkways, commercial, and light-industrial land uses.

“The civic and corporate worlds are looking for people who are creative problem-solvers, who are collaborative citizens, who are innovators,” says Bateman. “And that’s what we do at Cornish.”

Learn more at Cornish.edu