Interior Design program Summer Workshop

Program Overview

Each year during the month of July, PAA is pleased to offer a four week intensive program in Interior Design. The interior design summer workshop grants participants the opportunity to participate in an intensive design studio, giving them a strong foundation in design technique and culminating in a final presentation of the works accomplished over the summer.

This course presents a practical and “hands-on” approach to the interior design profession. Lectures and workshops are enhanced with visits to Parisian architectural sites (both historical and contemporary), as well as to furniture and fabric stores. Students will analyse different techniques of drawing / modelling, visual representation, and presentation, and will ultimately develop their own personal design methodology and representation style.

Course Details

European Interior Design Seminar: The Essentials of Interior Design

This seminar presents a practical and “hands-on” approach to the interior design profession. Students will be introduced to spatial planning, furnishings, color development, and materials selection. Lectures and presentations are enhanced with visits to both historical and contemporary architectural sites in Paris, as well as furniture and fabric stores. This course includes two practical workshops in Trend Forecasting and Spatial Representation, with individual and group critiques.

Interior Design Studio: The Floating House Project

The aim of the studio project is to teach students to use a practical working space to respond to a project, and to introduce planning methodology. This compact course covers representation techniques, including technical drawing and one- and two-point perspective renderings of interior spaces. Emphasis is made not only on the student’s ability to generate new ideas, but on the ability to graphically represent those ideas in the most appropriate way.

The theme of the summer workshop design studio is FLOATING HABITATION. The modern floating house is a relatively recent invention, one that serves as a bridge between interior design, product design, and technology. Using new materials and methods to guard against flooding and loss of stability, the floating house addresses the issues of urban expansion while taking into account the rising sea levels that threaten waterside construction. The abundance of rivers and streams in France provide the perfect opportunity to develop housing on water, following in the recent footsteps of architects like Koen Olthuis (Waterstudio) and Nicolas Le Guen (Aquashell).

History and design courses will focus on the development of Paris as an urban environment, analyzing the space of the city and how housing has developed. Technical work with Sketchup and other 3-D rendering programs, coupled with technical drawing classes and perspective drawing, will allow the students to draw and render their floating habitation designs. Students will also learn to understand modular space and the decisions and aesthetics behind furniture selection, and they will gain experience working with “green architecture” by exploring methods of renewable energy and sustainable materials in their habitation designs. At the end of the four-week workshop, students will have the opportunity to present their studio work to invited guests at a jury presentation.

Structure

Tuition

Summer Workshop

School fees: $5350(USD)

Please note that the tuition fees do not include housing, supplies or meals.

Housing fees:
-shared accommodation in private furnished apartment: $2650 (USD)
-shared three-star hotel twin room: $3780 (USD)
-private three-star hotel single room: $6500 (USD)

Part scholarships available; see below.

Richard Roy Scholarship

Applicants who have been accepted to study at the Paris American Academy may apply for partial scholarships through the Richard Roy Scholarship Fund. These scholarships range in value from $500 to $1,200 off tuition, and from $300 to $700 off housing.

Students wishing to be considered for a scholarship must submit a brief personal statement (1-2 paragraphs) along with their application. This statement should emphasize the student’s personal and educational background, demonstrating why he / she is in need of financial assistance and how a scholarship might benefit the student’s professional goals.

Fellowship Program

Returning students and alumni may have the option of participating in the summer workshop for a second time, at a reduced cost and with additional program responsibilities / work-study arrangements. Interested students should contact Patricio Sarmiento, PAA Director for more information.