Design Research in Interior Design Education: A Living Framework for Teaching the Undergraduate Capstone Studio in the 21st Century

This paper serves as a reflective discussion on the changing forces impacting the undergraduate interior design capstone studio. Reinforced by a successful Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) visit during the fall of 2015, the program has identified a major shift in the process approach to better structure the potential development of design innovation: moving from a reactive mode based on industry expectations and standard systematic research methods towards using a living research and design framework refined throughout the design process as observations and findings evolve. The CIDA accreditation review offered 'evidence' of the results of this shift. By reviewing the process of teaching the capstone over the last 7 years, this paper provides a platform to ground the current state of the pedagogical framework employed from its early stages to its current form.