The European Charter of Interior Architect Training 2020

After two years of hard work, consisting of 16 meetings in a number of different countries the ECIA board is very happy to announce that the European Charter of Interior Architect Training 2020 was accepted at the General Assembly 2020 and can now be published.

The 2020 Charter Revision

Human relation to space is the main focus of the profession of Interior Architecture. Since 2013 there have been several important developments in society, education, technology and the profession itself. The most significant changes are the need to design with an awareness of environmental issues, increased social responsibility and the use of digital technology. The definition of the profession of Interior Architect used in the 2013 charter has been re-worked and expanded in the 2020 charter in order to reflect the work and position of the profession today.

The first version of this document was signed and published in 2000. The document has been periodically updated throughout the following years. After the European countries agreed to the Bologna declaration, the charter was restructured in accordance with the new structure of bachelor and master programs.

The original objective of the European Charter of Interior Architecture Training was to describe the entry level to the profession. This has not changed, but in addition the charter can be used for national discussions on education politics, curricula development in educational institutions and recognition processes in the individual national organisations.

The main purpose of this last revision was to clarify the requirements for the training of an Interior Architect from the perspective of practice, check if these were appropriately pictured and ensure that changes in society were reflected in the necessary qualifications, as described in an upgraded charter.

The largest structural change in the 2020 revision is that it extends this notion of ‘training’ by opening a third level that is divided into two parts:

Part one – a recommendation of a two-year period of professional traineeship or practice experience supervised by a qualified mentor and documented to reflect this experience.

Part two - allows for a level of research beyond the entry level to the profession. This part of the third level follows the structure of the Bologna Agreement, where the aim is to contribute to new knowledge within the profession and should result in a documented form that can be peer reviewed and lead to profound expertise in the field of Interior Architecture.

We hope the new charter will help to bring the profession up to date and be an inspiration to the many European Universities that contribute to the training of Interior Architects.

The working group on education.

René Damian Pier (D)

Albert Fuster i Marti (ES)

Marianne Daepp (CH)

Prof. Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla, PhD (EST)

Jeremy Williams (NO)