Interior Architecture Masters Theses
Interior Architecture offers the following degree program options at the graduate level:
• Master of Arts (MA) in Adaptive Reuse, a one-year+ program
• Master of Design (MDes) in Interior Studies / Adaptive Reuse, a two-year+ program
• Master of Design (MDes) in Interior Studies / Exhibition + Narrative Environments, a two-year+ program
Both programs take an innovative and progressive approach to addressing design issues intrinsic to the reuse and transformation of existing structures. US News & World Report and Design Intelligence have both ranked RISD’s Interior Architecture programs among the top in the country.
Each MA candidate produces a final project that begins with a research component in the fall and evolves into a studio/design project in the spring. MDes candidates demonstrate competency through self-directed Degree Projects that include a seminar on theory, a research component and a studio component. Each DP focuses on the transformation of an existing structure of their choice in the city of Providence. All MA and MDes candidates also participate in the RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition, a large-scale public show held annually.
Graduate Program Director: Markus Berger
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Theses from 2026
AER, Qiyi Cai
PROVIDENCE PUZZLE:Exhibition Design as Urban Spatial Practice, Ye Chen
Fallen Leaves:The Unseen, Forgotten, Presences that Live in Us, Juhee Cho
Returning to the Hand, Tatum Dodd
Strata: Portraits of the Alvarado & the Southwest, Kayla R. Duncan
Mirth, Lauren Schell Farias
Fetishismus:Facism, Sodomy, and the Exhibition, Matthew P. Gershovich
LACE MEMORY LAB, Xinyu Han
Between nature and architecture : A dialogue of five elements, Niexiangyi He
The Amplifier: Small Spaces, Loud Futures, Szewai Hong
The Marathon without Running: Experiencing a runner's sensorial journey, Harin Kim
Where my memory settles, Rachel Kobb
DOMESTICATING DURATION, Xiaoyu Lan
Soft Space/Strong Support, Keqian Li
After Yellow Horse: From Passive Shelter to a Self-Sustaining Cycle, Xinyuan Liu
care ecologies between knots, Eliza R. Marris
numb., Anna Rapson
Jadughar: The House of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah
Where the Walls Came Down: Reimagining the Disaster-Induced Modern Ruin, Zhenmi Tang
Breathing Structures: Hygroscopicity of fibers., Nawal Urooj and Nawal Urooj
The Right to Withdraw: Soft Boundaries and Material Refuge in the Workplace, Zhihao (Sky) Xing
FEELING THROUGH SPACE:Designing Emotion in Space Through Alice in Wonderland, Xuanyu Yang
The Birdwatching Pause: Reframing Campus Life Through Everyday Bird Encounters, Katherine Zeng
SOFT BODIES, HARD FRAMES, Emily Zhang
Theses from 2025
Silent Witnesses: Reconnecting Landscape through Lost Narratives, Abeer Aljohani
Al-Naseej: A Woven Path, Dalal M. Almazeedi
Post Occupation Amnesia, Zainah AlWuhaib
'manch' beyond - museum, Dhwani Bapna
Post Salt: Adaptive Architecture for an Uncertain Climate, Mallorie Beckner
Wood in Hand: Open-Ended Wooden Play, Farnaz Dastranj
Unseen, But There, XINYU DONG
The Afterlife of Walls / Reimagining the Museum Beyond Possession, Bensu Girgin
Giving Space to Equity: Creating Modular Mentorship Spaces for At-Risk Youth, Helei Gomariz-Robertson
Foundations of Belonging, Yerim Jang
Unframing Venus: Redefining the Female Nude, Sage Leafsong
Reimagining The Arcade, Yichen Liao
FROM INDUSTRIAL BUILDING TO AFFORDABLE SENIOR HOUSING: AN IDEA BOOK BEYOND CODE, Weiyi Ma
A Seat at the Table: Expanding the Narrative of Period Rooms, Jade McPike
TerraShift, Mill Jignesh Shah and Mill Shah
Looped Logic & Wild Lines, Shuting Shao
From In to Out, Jaeyeon Shin
Buddha, Resituated, Min Sun
Echoes of Scent: Redefining Museum Accessibility, Jiongyi Tang
OURCRAFT, jie wang
Stranded in Time: Reawakening the Crook Point Bascule Bridge through Temporality, Zhipeng Wang
Rural Dreams, Zongda Wu
Cohabitation at Threshold: Carpenter House Reimagined for Multispecies Living, Zhixiao Yang
Theses from 2024
Revitalizing Decay, Owen Carey
RECLAIMED BY ROOTS, Dongyang Chen
A Living Storyscape, Vivian Combariza
Emotional Factory, Yukun Cui
Witnessing Timelessness: Revitalizing Heritage Tourism in the Ruins of Saudi Arabia, Reem Habis
City Sonatas, Duoduo Lin
Homeward Bound: moving homes, moving home, Ella Nadeau
-ing: Heritage as a Verb, Eunji Park
Milpa: Cultivating Community Through Grid Remediation in México, Marianna Pasaret Molinar
Space Between: Navigating Openness, Torie Stotz
Making Room, Rachel Strompf
Celestella Resonance, Xuanren Wang
Echoes of Heights: Sustaining Tradition for Education and Community in the Tibetan Plateau, Junyue Wen
Recomposing Museums: Designing Rhythmic Experiences for Short Attention Spans in the Digital Age, Yujiang Wu
Gender Mirror: Giving women's perspective to men through exhibition, Jiaxuan Xu
Beyond Display: Crafting Emotional Journeys for Belonging and Connectivity, Jiamin Yang
Exploring the versatility of clay in double curvature surface formation, yicheng zhang
Bridge Between Calligraphy and Architect, Tianhao Zhong
忘年交 / A Friendship That Transcends Age, Zichen Zhou
Theses from 2023
the people's food project, Grace Barrett
Kala in my Moholla - art in my neighborhood, Priyata Bosamia
Nature as Material, Time as Tool, Chuchu Chen
FROM VAULT TO PLATFORM （Democratizing Museums through the Lens of the Metaverse））, Zhaoyang Cui
Intensifying the Experience of Contemporary Art, Wanjin Feng
Manifesto of Poor Images: Re-imagine Guggenheim in the Post-digital Age, Mengning He
Adding Subtraction: Wasting Time in Space, Daeun Kim
NEW CHAPTER, Gunju Kim
A Cloud Above, Jiwon Kim
Greening Seoul : A New Toolkit for Adaptive Reuse, Woojae Kim
A.R. Futuristic Scenario in Seun, Yookyung Lee
Eviction to Placement: Rethinking the current supportive housing systems for hidden homeless families, Fang-Min Liou
The Mobile Senior University, YOUSHURUI LI
making pla(y)ces: softening the city through play, Shivani Pinapotu
Interstice, Shravan Rao
Overlooked Modi Vivendi, Natalia Silva
Chinese tea ceremony spirit revival, Hongli Song
Nurturing Haven: A Safe Place for Single Mothers, Meng Su
A Day Stood Still, Yuting Sun
Imaginatorium for children with visual impairment, Xueyun Tang
Reconcile Liminality, Zefeng Wang
Illusion of Consumption, Architectural Rebellion: Unraveling the Maze of Consumption, Xinjie Xiang
Interactive Architecture - Intervention of Virtual Business on Commercial Space, Yihao George Xu
Glowing Under the Bridge—A Healing Space for Wounded Souls, Ruier Zhao
Moving Narration: A journey through history, Yincheng Zhu
Finding Psychological Healing in College Settings, Dici Zou
Theses from 2022
Notes in improvisation : Spatializing Black Identity through music, Esther Akintoye
Dying differently: designing a death-oriented psychedelic treatment center, Grace Caiazza
Blurred lines : Border crossing between Macau and Zhuhai, Weiwei Chen
Regenerative residences: shrinking stress levels in the sky, Peter de Lande Long
Adaptive reduce: forging architectural futures through degrowth, Erika Kane