Discussion of the Naming of the Department of Interior Architecture / Interior Architecture and Environmental Design

This study hypothesizes that the departments of interior architecture/interior architecture

and environmental design, which train professionals for the interior architecture

profession, are actually equivalent and that the naming of 'environmental design' is a

meaning contained in the word interior architecture. The fact that two departments accept

students from two different score types has created identity confusion and many

problems in the profession. This study aims to suggest a name by drawing attention to

these problems and explaining their causes. In this context, the history of interior

architecture education and profession was researched from the literature. The basic field

problem, the concept of environmental design, which is one of the reasons for the naming

difference, was scanned from the literature. Then, statistical information is given for

institutions providing interior architecture education. By comparing the curricula and course information packages of a total of 10 universities, five interior architecture and

five interior architecture and environmental design, which were sampled by selecting the

oldest departments according to their opening years, it was investigated whether there

was a necessity for these departments to have an 'environmental design' suffix. It is

qualitative research, and by using the content analysis (scanning and document

analysis) method, similar courses were collected on the basis of groups and the

similarities, and differences between interior architecture / interior architecture and

environmental design education were determined. As a result, it has been revealed that

interior architecture departments train professionals in the same field of activity

regardless of their names and that the environmental design supplement does not make

a difference both educationally and professionally.