EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

The European Council of Interior Architecture (ECIA) general assembly and round table discussions took place in Florence last week, in the opulent Palazzo Medici Riccardi.  YAADA Lecturer Masa Ruane Bratusa travelled to the event.

ATU was amongst a selected few patrons of the event, in the company of the most prestigious schools across Europe – Milano Politecnico, Universiteit Antwerpen and U Elisava (Catalunia) amongst others.  Over 100 professionals and educators from the Interior Architecture and Design fields gathered, with representatives from the Architects Council of Europe joining the discussions to aid the New European Bauhaus Initiative.

On its 30th anniversary ECIA counts 20 national member organisations, all dedicated to ‘building connections for stronger profession’ programme. This number is increasing yearly.  Ireland currently does not have a dedicated national association for Interior Architecture and this was a subject of a round table discussion.

ECIA is funding research with the University of Antwerpen on professionalisation of the discipline which includes case studies of countries in similar positions & will develop a model for establishment and integration of national bodies.  The round table discussions covered topics which concern third level education in Europe & recognised the need for establishment of IAD Masters and PhD programmes, which there are currently only a few.