The Interior Design program at Pratt prepares you to become an innovator and leader in the field of Interior Design. Addressing the critical issues of sustainability, social justice and emerging technologies, you are positioned to engage the larger potentials of professional practice and design education.
Your education in interior design will address the full spectrum of forces and scales of the built environment; from larger architectural contexts, to object and material exploration, as well as its historical, social, and cultural implications. As graduate students, you will contribute to how we understand and define interior design. Curating your own academic path that supports your interests in topics ranging from exhibition, lighting, furniture, theory, sustainability, emerging technology, and independent self-directed topics.
Pratt Institute’s MFA in Interior Design is located within the ultimate learning environment of New York City—the interior design capital of the United States. Consistently identified at the forefront of Interior Design education, our graduate program prepares students to become leaders in the discipline by setting high standards for critical thinking, professional aptitude, social and ethical responsibility, exemplary expression of skills and abilities, enhancing and transforming the human environment.
What We Offer
Interior Design at Pratt is a spatially driven exploration of the discipline. Through an inspiring and challenging course of study, the Interior Design program is a leading innovator in an expanding and dynamic field. The MFA in Interior Design guides students in generating comprehensive creative solutions that integrate an understanding of craft and making, material research, emerging technologies, and sustainable practices, fully cognizant of global cultural histories and diverse contexts. The program prepares students to engage in critical inquiry which establishes them as innovators in the field of interior design, expanding the potential of professional practice, design education, and research affecting our understanding of the interior.
What You Should Know
The MFA degree prepares individuals who are interested in contributing to the academic discipline as well as the profession. Our international student body with its varying backgrounds, academic disciplines, and life experiences, creates an intellectually stimulating environment. Our students are a select group who come to Pratt to work hard in order to prepare themselves to enter a profession in which the designer must be nimble, multifaceted, and equipped with the skills necessary to provide innovative design solutions.
Applicants with an undergraduate degree in interior design, architecture, or other closely related design fields may be eligible to complete the M.F.A. in as little as two years, a total of 60 credits; a portfolio of academic and/or professional work is required.
Applicants with undergraduate backgrounds that are unrelated to interior design or architecture are required to take a 24 credit Core Year of preparatory study, prior to continuing the M.F.A degree. These students may complete 84 credits in three years. A portfolio is required and the department recommends that applicants submit material that represents their best skills and knowledge related to their own background, experience, and interests. A required statement of purpose provides the opportunity for applicants to articulate how their background can inform, and has prepared them for the field of study in interior design at Pratt Institute.
Upon completion of their studies, students:
Demonstrate a detailed level of problem identification and solving in the design of interior environments, informed by rigorous research and analysis, culminating in a comprehensive body of work.
Demonstrate proficiency in analog processes and digital technologies to effectively generate and communicate their ideas visually.
Use written and oral communication to effectively develop and convey their ideas.
Demonstrate comprehension of cultural, social, and political issues affecting the design discipline, theory, and practice in order to position the role of interior design within a broader global discourse concerning human behavior and experience.
Develop and integrate an understanding of sustainable design issues, strategies, and qualities in relation to the interior environment and its occupants.
Demonstrate knowledge of emerging technologies within and adjacent to the interior design discipline.
Integrate knowledge of regulations and guidelines related to construction processes, products, and labor practices.
Research, test, and integrate innovative applications of light, color, and materiality as essential design elements and principles.
Recognize and demonstrate awareness of the implications of spatial and material practices and their representations for a diversity of individuals and communities.
Our faculty members include practicing professionals and academics whose experiences are reflected in their teaching. Open, dynamic dialogue between students and faculty focuses on the many scales, uses, and activities that comprise interior design and expands to address the larger issues of habitation, urbanization, and society, thus providing a rich exchange between the world of designers, makers, and users of the built environment.
We believe that design at its best is a force for good: it connects, enables, sustains, empowers, and humanizes. Across our programs, we explore the expansiveness of this idea. As a student here, you’ll design messages, objects, spaces, and systems, and discover the power of your practice—to creatively change the world you’re in and the world around you.
The design studio is at the core of your educational experience at Pratt. It is a creative space and a community in microcosm, from which we connect to the larger community. Our studio culture supports our work to create spaces, environments, and structures that are just, equitable, accessible, and give agency to all.
Sustainability and material exploration drive our passion for making. We are hands-on and immersive; any student of design can discover, iterate and refine their investigations through our many labs. With production labs in the Design Center and the nearby Engineering building you have easy access to the tools and resources you need to build, test, fabricate, and explore your design proposals in analog or digital form, in 2, 3, or 4D.
We develop disciplinary fluency in our program of study and we celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of design critical to address the plurality and complexity of the environments in which we operate. Interior Design students actively participate in study abroad programs, interdisciplinary electives, funded work through the Graduate Student Engagement fund, and have fully engaged all other learning resources.
Pratt is a diverse, international community of students and faculty working together in a very local community, connecting with our immediate and global neighbors, in the hyper international city of New York. Through internships, school and industry events you will build an international network of colleagues and resources that will enhance your experience at Pratt and help propel you in your future endeavors.
Pratt’s distinguished alumni are thriving with successful careers creating and contributing to innovative work that reimagines our world, at diverse companies like Gensler, Perkins&Will, The Switzer Group, Rockwell Group, Snøhetta, Roman and Williams, Avroko, Tony Chi Studio, as well as entrepreneurs, owners and principals leading their own studio practices.
