Program Overview

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BA (Hons) Interior Architecture with Foundation Year

Why study this course with LJMU?

• An introduction to contemporary art and design practices, including Art History and drawing, alongside core academic skills
• Students can access study abroad opportunities, apply for overseas travel awards and take exchanges
• Access to some of the UK's best examples of urban redevelopment and iconic buildings
• Taught in the RIBA award-winning, purpose-built John Lennon Art and Design Building
• Direct involvement in live artistic projects
• International Foundation Year course available offering direct progression onto this degree programme
• Take a virtual tour of this year's Architecture degree show
• For news and student-led events, course information and student work and staff research, visit the LJMU Architecture blog
• LJMU ranked 13th university in the UK for Architecture (The Times UK University Rankings 2025)

About your course

This programme gives you the opportunity to work on a range of authentic architectural projects with input from practising architects and interior design specialist in a dynamic studio environment with access to industry standard technical facilities.

The emphasis of this programme is the creative adaptation, repurposing, remodelling, rebranding, restyling and refitting of existing buildings.

Taught principally through a studio environment that is seamlessly underpinned and informed by lectures and workshops, the over-arching ambition is to create graduates with artistic flair, and who are technically skilled and grounded in the demands of the profession.

The learning and teaching environment is progressively informed by research in pedagogy in the creative field. While teaching the curriculum, the programme also develops less tangible skills in students, such as communication, presentation and self-motivation; a key ambition is to create independent thinkers, adept at resolving problems with creativity and originality.

A broad educational experience is offered within which students can develop diverse rigorous and creative approaches to design issues that explore and test appropriate resolutions in relation to contemporary and anticipated contextual issues.

Design projects form the backbone of the core teaching strategy. These projects are seen as primers to a divergent creative and critical thought process: they are characterised by individual interpretation and interest of the subjects that encourage imaginative solutions through discursive studio forums.

As you progress through the degree, the design projects gradually become more complex and ambitious in their intentions and integrative in their nature. At degree level, predominantly, the city of Liverpool is used as a contextual laboratory to test concepts that have a local flavour with global implications.

The aim is to develop graduate skills and knowledge such that you become an autonomous thinker who is capable of analysing, visualising and testing potential solutions to increasingly complex spatial and social issues within an increasingly holistic global scenario.

For news, events, including student-led events, course information and student work and staff research, visit the Architecture blog.

Foundation Year

The Foundation Year pathway (level 3) introduces students to core academic skills needed to thrive in High Education, and provides an introduction to art and design principles and practices that are required for students to study on the BA (Hons) programmes at Liverpool School of Art and Design.

This unique Foundation Year is a preparatory year of study shared by Architecture, Fashion: Design & Communication, Graphic Design & Illustration, and Interior Architecture degree programmes. It is ideal if you have the interest and ability to study for a degree, but do not have the qualifications to enter directly onto the first year of a full honours degree. The Foundation Year allows greater access to the undergraduate programmes through a series of general taught modules that gradually build in exposure to discipline-specific practices, to enable students to be ready to take their place on the first year of their chosen full-time HE course.

Students are taught together as a non-discipline specific group in four out of six modules with opportunities to split into discipline-specific groups in the Exploring Materials, Process and Practice and Studio Practice Project modules. This non-disciplinary structure is designed to promote cross-disciplinary thinking and learning experiences. Students are also part of a wider level 3 community and study two academic skills modules (Preparing for Success: Academic Skills, and Investigating Liverpool) with other foundation students.

There is a focus on the attainment of core academic skills, including writing, referencing, computer and research skills.

The Foundation Year aims to:

• Introduce students to contemporary art and design practices, including Art History and drawing
• Introduce core academic and general skills across four modules and introduce discipline specific subjects in two modules
• Foster the development of ideas through introductory 'exposures' and 'encounters' with materials, technologies and processes that replicate and simulate real-world interactions for making and collaborative practice
• Support students induction and orientation to basic resources and workshops in the John Lennon Art and Design Building, and use key workshop areas and resources associated with their programmes in a safe and appropriate manner
• Acquire and develop the academic skills needed for successful transition into level 4 and completion of the degree
• Engage students to develop a self-directed and independent approach to learning

Students will have access to specialist workshops and technical support in the John Lennon Art and Design Building to develop their practical skills but no dedicated studio space is provided. You will spent a significant amount of time working online in our virtual learning environment, CANVAS.

Once you pass the Foundation Year you will progress directly onto the first year of the BA (Hons) Interior Architecture degree. If you are a full-time UK student, you will qualify for student financial support for the full duration of your course (subject to eligibility criteria).

Course modules

Foundation Year

• Exploring Materials, Process and Practice (30 credits)
• Art and Culture (30 credits)
• Drawing and Culture (30 credits)
• Studio Practice Project (30 credits)

Year 1

• History and Theory 1: a global review of architectural Design (20 credits)
• Fundamental Skills: Understanding buildings through drawing (20 credits)
• Design 1: Light, space and form; narrative and spatial sequencing (20 credits)
• Design 2: Exploration for a place for making (20 credits)
• Design 3: Crafting a Spatial Proposition (10 credits)
• Design 4: the Need for Design (10 credits)
• Environment and Technology 1: Introduction to structural and environmental design (20 credits)

Year 2

• History and Theory 2: Modernism; from the symbol of the present to the medium of the future (20 credits)
• Design 5: Adaptive Reuse - Origination (20 credits)
• Design 6: Adaptive Reuse - Resolution (20 credits)
• Integrated Design 1: Explorative Project - Design (20 credits)
• Integrated Design 2: Explorative Project - Technology (20 credits)
• Environment and Technology 2: Use and application of Building Information Modelling (20 credits)

Year 3

• Design Project Research - CDP (20 credits)
• Integrated Design 2: Interior Re-modelling Project (20 credits)
• Integrated Design 2: Supporting Studies (20 credits)
• Integrated Design 3: Comprehensive Design Project (40 credits)
• Practice and Legislation: Ethical design practice and building legislation (20 credits)

Professional accreditation

To become a registered architect you usually need to work for an additional year in architectural practice then complete a two-year Master of Architecture (MArch) diploma. Once you have passed the RIBA Part 3 exams, you can practice in any EU or commonwealth country and many other countries outside the EU.

If after graduating you choose not to go down the route of becoming an interior architectural designer, a range of other careers are open to you. Past graduates have pursued successful careers as project managers, property developers, furniture designers, lighting designers, architectural visualisation artists and journalists.

Your Learning Experience

• Teaching Support Assessment

Excellent facilities and learning resources

We adopt an active blended learning approach, meaning you will experience a combination of face-to-face and online learning during your time at LJMU. This enables you to experience a rich and diverse learning experience and engage fully with your studies. Our approach ensures that you can easily access support from your personal tutor, either by meeting them on-campus or via a video call to suit your needs.

Where you will study

Cross-disciplinary learning in art and design subjects takes place in the Liverpool School of Art and Design's John Lennon Art and Design Building, based in the Mount Pleasant Campus. Here students studying a variety of disciplines, including Architecture, Art in Science, Exhibition Studies, Fashion, Fine Art, Graphic Design, History of Art and Museum Studies and Interior Architecture, will have the opportunity to develop their work in state-of-the-art workspaces and facilities within a stimulating and critically demanding environment.

Career paths

To become a registered architect you usually need to work for an additional year in architectural practice then complete a two-year Master of Architecture (MArch) diploma. Once you have passed the RIBA Part 3 exams, you can practice in any EU or commonwealth country and many other countries outside the EU.

If after graduating you choose not to go down the route of becoming an interior architectural designer, a range of other careers are open to you. Past graduates have pursued successful careers as project managers, property developers, furniture designers, lighting designers, architectural visualisation artists and journalists.

Many of our graduates have successfully secured employment at world-class practices throughout the UK and further afield, while others have remained in the city of Liverpool contributing to its evolution, taking key roles in leading practices that have reshaped the city over the last decade.

Student Futures - Careers, Employability and Enterprise Service

A wide range of opportunities and support is available to you, within and beyond your course, to ensure our students experience a transformation in their career trajectory. Every undergraduate curriculum includes Future Focus during Level 4, an e-learning resource and workshop designed to help you to develop your talents, passion and purpose.

Every student has access to Careers Zone 24/7, LJMU's suite of online Apps, resources and jobs board via the LJMU Student Futures website.

Tuition fees and funding

• Home: £9,535
• International: £18,250

Entry requirements

• Grades/points required from qualifications: DDD (72)
• GCSEs and equivalents: Grade 4 or grade C or above in English Language and Mathematics/Numeracy and Science
• A levels: DDD
• BTECs: Extended Diploma: MMP
• Access awards: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
• International Baccalaureate: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
• OCR Cambridge Technical: Extended Diploma: MMP
• Irish awards: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
• T levels: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications.

Additional requirements

• Assessment required: Shortlisted applicants will be required to submit a digital portfolio.
• DBS, Occupational Health requirements:
• Reduced offer scheme: At LJMU, we are dedicated to widening participation in education. We understand that academic potential isn't always accurately represented by grades alone. Therefore, we consider additional information included in your application. If you meet certain eligibility criteria, we may make an offer lower than our typical entry requirements.

International requirements

• IELTS: 6.0 overall with no component below 5.5, taken within two years of the course start date.

How to apply

• UCAS is the official application route for our full-time undergraduate courses. Further information on the UCAS application process can be found here.