MAIA—Master of Arts in Interior Architecture: interior ecologies
Interior Architecture operates nowadays at the intersection between physical and mediated spaces, such as those of mass communications, digital platforms, or visual arts. Considering any form of representation as architectural—from photography to video games, from cinema to generative AI—MAIA explores interior spaces as platforms of ‘expanded media,’ examining their belonging to different places and temporalities, whether physical or virtual, close or distant, ultimately reasserting the role of interior architecture in the construction of contemporaneity.
The Master of Arts in Interior Architecture (MAIA) is a full-time, two-year graduate program that explores interior architecture at the intersection of space, ecology, and media. Space design is viewed as multidimensional, articulating the diversity of interiors, environments, and multispecies that configure reality along various paths and scales, from material to virtual, and from local to global.
MAIA addresses both the responses to contemporary environmental and societal challenges (circular economy, carbon footprint, biodiversity loss) and the implications of new ecological paradigms (post-natural, post-human, more-than-human) for interior architecture as a discipline in all its professional dimensions—space design, product design, new media, research, and curatorial and editorial practices. The professional dimension of the program includes full-scale project realizations and multidisciplinary training that explore new interior ecologies.
MAIA: professional projects
MAIA students regularly engage in professional projects in collaboration with cultural institutions and economic partners. This hands-on approach allows students to gain practical experience in real projects, preparing them for the conceptual, technical, and administrative aspects inherent in professional practice. Students also have the opportunity to collaborate with and be showcased in international exhibitions, including events like the Milan Design Week or Vitra Design Museum. MAIA enables its graduates to apply for registration on the Professional Register of Swiss Architects (REG A, Interior Architecture).
MAIA: research partners
MAIA students collaborate on ongoing research projects with academic partners, such as Scènes de Nuit—a research platform investigating the entanglements between night and architecture—and The Future of Humanitarian Design—a research project focused on humanitarian policy and architecture developed in collaboration with the Geneva Graduate Institute and the University of Copenhagen. The MAIA program includes a permanent cooperation with the Joint Master of Architecture (JMA) of the schools of Geneva, Fribourg, and Burgdorf, as well as with the École Camondo in Paris and Toulon. Research is envisioned as central to shaping new professional opportunities, including design, curatorial, and editorial practices, leading to a professional international career.
MAIA: International Community, HEAD—Genève
MAIA students engage in learning within an international community that includes interior designers, architects, curators, researchers, and experts from diverse disciplines. The program benefits from the ecosystem at HEAD – Genève, where it regularly collaborates with other departments such as cinema, fashion, or media design, aiming to redefine the profession of Interior Architecture as a multidisciplinary practice in the 21st century.
MAIA: curriculum
The program is structured over four semesters:
MAIA I—Glossaries: Sustainable, Post-human Interiors
MAIA II—Assemblages: Technology, Objects, Mediated Interiors
MAIA III—Iterations: Research, Design, Multiscalar Interiors
MAIA IV—Diploma: Professional Competences
MAIA: Community
MAIA students work with a notable community of designers, architects, curators, ecologists, theorists, and experts from different disciplines, constructing interior spaces that are articulated with the parallel narratives of exhibitions, films, and publications. This transversal approach creates an arena of experimental condition that proves challenging for teachers, students and real users.
Teachers and lecturers: Javier F. Contreras, Youri Kravtchenko, KOSMOS Architects, Philippe Rahm, Studio Ossidiana, Space Popular, Institute for Postnatural Studies, Jolanthe Kugler, Paule Perron, BUREAU, apropå.
Application deadline: March 25, 2025
Interviews: May 2–8 in Geneva