BFAInterior Design
Create environments that put people and the planet first, using design as a tool for change.
Overview
Top-ranked in interior design
San Francisco is your studio
Design is everywhere in the Bay Area, full of innovators of interior design who are rethinking sustainability, housing, and culture every day. With the San Francisco Design Center just around the corner and opportunities to work with local organizations in class, you’ll start building your professional network as soon as you step on campus.
Studios & Shops
Designed for hands-on learning
Use exciting materials and technologies
From intimate homes to large public spaces and environments of the future, explore a wide range of interiors and gain the technical skills to turn bold ideas into real spaces. Our studios and shops give you the freedom to work across textiles, ceramics, wood, metal, and more—combining traditional craft with digital tools like virtual reality and AI.
Your interior design playground
- CCA Materials Library & Interior Design Materials Collection (IDMC): Curated libraries of innovative materials—sustainable wood, textiles, composites, and more—where you can experiment with how things feel and function.
- Mobile Lighting Unit: A rolling lab you can take anywhere on campus to play with color, intensity, and shadows.
- Lighting Lab: A purpose-built space to try out natural and artificial lighting to see what will work best in your interior designs.
- Digital Craft Lab (DCL): A high-tech hub with tools like robotics, digital fabrication, and advanced visualization, where you’ll collaborate with other students and visiting professionals to invent new sustainable building materials.
Faculty
Industry-leading mentorship
Renowned designers put your future in focus
You’ll learn from faculty who are actively reimagining what interior design can be. Some focus on new ways interiors function, others push material and technology research—like responsive walls and innovative fabrication methods—and others lead socially engaged practices that design for community impact. Together, they’ll show you the many directions your own career can grow.
Margaux Schindler, Chair of Interior Design
Chair Margaux Schindler is a designer, researcher, and educator who focuses on sustainable building systems and innovative material design. She’s a founding partner of SIZL Studio, an interdisciplinary practice working across architecture, interiors, landscapes, and objects. Margaux is especially interested in creating adaptable, flexible spaces that respond to how people actually live, exploring design at every scale, from small objects to large environments.
Faculty stories
A newly donated robot opens up possibilities for architecture and design
A large industrial KUKA robot joins CCA Architecture’s Digital Craft Lab, paving the way for faculty and students to extend their explorations of digital fabrication and material innovation.
CCA faculty lead their fields and earn top honors and fellowships
Recent faculty accolades include Artadia Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award, and the CAA’s Distinguished Teaching of Art Award, among many others.
California College of the Arts welcomes 10 new chairs across the college
CCA is delighted to welcome 10 new chairs to the college, including both new hires and current professors and faculty.
Curriculum
Built for what’s next
Community projects and career experience
Our NASAD-accredited curriculum blends design studios, building technology, history and theory, and liberal arts. You’ll learn to design interiors that are as technically sound as they are inspiring, while experimenting with materials and future-forward ideas in every studio. Optional minors in Ecological Practices, Computational Practices, History of Art and Visual Culture, Writing and Literature, and Furniture let you shape your education around what excites you most.
Interdisciplinary practice and intentional projects
From your first studios to advanced interdisciplinary courses, you’ll work across disciplines and connect with the Bay Area community, such as partnering with Mission Neighborhood Resource Center to design community murals and prototype new spaces. Hands-on, real-world projects show how interior design can make a real difference in the way people live and connect.
Interior Design recent travel studio: Mexico | Material Cultures in Mexico City & Oaxaca
Professional opportunities and global study
Your junior and senior years, you’ll intern with leading interior design and architecture firms in the Bay Area and beyond, gaining professional experience and industry connections before graduation. Each spring, one junior is selected for the prestigious Gensler Summer Internship in San Francisco—an exclusive opportunity to gain hands-on experience at one of the world’s top design firms.
Many students also study abroad, exploring how interior design adapts across cultures. Recent trips have taken students to Tokyo, where they investigated domestic space, and Mexico City, where they learned to merge traditional and contemporary material practices.
Soojee Choi, Converge, spring 2023. Interior Design Studio 3, instructor: Negar Kalantar.
Award-winning design education
Our curriculum is designed to help you stand out—even before you graduate. CCA’s Interior Design students have won numerous national and international awards, including the Metropolis Future 100, LIT Awards, Lighting Designer of the Year Awards, IIDA Northern California Honor Awards, and the 2025 IIDA Student of the Year Award, NEWH scholarships, and International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) Student Workshop winning teams.
Start strong with the First Year Experience
All undergraduates begin with a two-semester First Year Experience, where you’ll explore tools and materials across disciplines. Through studio projects and critiques, you’ll build the creative and conceptual foundation to thrive in your major.
BFA Interior Design
Foundational Curriculum
- Drawing Studio
- 3.0 units
- 2D Studio
- 3.0 units
- 3D Studio
- 3.0 units
- 4D Studio
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Arts
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Modern Arts
- 3.0 units
- Writing 1
- 3.0 units
- Writing 2
- 3.0 units
- Foundations in Critical Studies
- 3.0 units
Interior Design Major Requirements
- Interior Design Studio 1–4
- 12.0 units
- Design Media 1–3
- 9.0 units
- Materiality and Space 1–4
- 12.0 units
- Building Technology: Building Systems
- 3.0 units
- Building Technology: Lighting Design
- 3.0 units
- Junior Review
- 0.0 units
- Advanced Interdisciplinary Studio
- 3.0 units
- Interior Design Advanced Studio
- 3.0 units
- Professional Practice
- 3.0 units
- History of Interior Design 1
- 3.0 units
- History of Interior Design 2
- 3.0 units
- History/Theory Elective
- 3.0 units
- Internship
- 0.0 units
- Studio Electives
- 6.0 units
Collegewide Curriculum
- Critical Ethnic Studies Studio
- 3.0 units
- Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio
- 3.0 units
- Critical Ethnic Studies Seminar (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Literary and Performing Arts Studies (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Philosophy and Critical Theory (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Social Science/History (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Science/Math (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- History of Art and Visual Culture (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Humanities and Sciences Electives (3000 level)
- 6.0 units
Total 120.0 units
Careers
Skills that get hired
Put your real-world experiences to work
You’ll leave with a strong portfolio, professional experience, and the skills to design spaces that matter, from sustainable living environments to cultural institutions and community centers—100% of CCA’s BFA Interior Design alumni are employed within six months of graduation.
What careers do interior design students pursue?
Recent alumni work across leading design, technology, and cultural organizations such as Woods Bagot, Gensler, Ken Fulk, the Exploratorium, Intuit, and EHDD, among others. Many students also pursue graduate degrees around the world in fields such as Architecture, Environmental Studies, Interior Design, Education, Public Policy, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, and Business Strategy.
Alumni success
Scarlett Zhang (BFA Interior Design 2019)
Scarlett Zhang (BFA Interior Design 2019)
Interior Design alum Scarlett Zhang shares her thoughts on studying in San Francisco and how she stays creative.
Nitya Sanjana Reddy Cheruku (BFA Interior Design 2025)
Nitya Sanjana Reddy Cheruku (BFA Interior Design 2025)
Nitya Sanjana Reddy Cheruku (BFA Interior Design 2025) has been named the 2025 Student of the Year by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).
Larry Peifer (BFA Interior Design 2012)
Larry Peifer (BFA Interior Design 2012)
Four esteemed graduates of the college—artists, industry leaders, and designers in their own right—share why they stay involved with our community and continue to give back to CCA.
News & Events
Big ideas for tomorrow’s environments
Meet professionals changing the field
We bring big ideas to campus—from Bay Area innovators to international voices—so you can see what’s happening in design and imagine where your own career could go.
CCA Interior Design student reimagines food systems in winning project at 2025 WANTED Schools Workshop
Gabriela Mierkalne (BFA Interior Design 2026) and her teammates won the Workshop with their project, Re-compost, which reimagines New York's composting system to make it truly circular.
Three CCA students named to prestigious Metropolis Future 100
Two undergraduate students and one graduate student were named to the Metropolis Future 100, designed to designate the top architecture and interior design students.
CCA Interior Design undergraduate awarded prestigious national scholarship
Nitya Sanjana Reddy Cheruku (BFA Interior Design 2025) has earned the acclaimed 2024 Angelo Donghia Foundation Senior Student scholarship, helping to cover the cost of her final year of studies and launch her design career.
How to Apply
Start your interior imagination
CCA’s BFA in Interior Design is for students who see interiors as more than walls and furniture—they’re the places where life happens and the future takes hold. Whether you’re drawn to new materials, sustainable design, or still figuring it all out, you’ll find the opportunities and guidance to grow your dream creative life here.