Hong Kong Opens First School Dedicated to Interior Design

Hong Kong has recently opened its doors to enthusiasts of interior design with its first school dedicated to this industry alone.

Insight School of Interior Design, established by Eve Mercier, opened last February and currently offers short courses in Interior Design. By September of this year, the institution will launch their one-year diploma course offerings.

Mercier’s idea of establishing an interior design school in Hong Kong came upon her while she was working in her interior design firm in London. Architects and interior designers kept on telling her about the high demand for properly-trained interior designers in Hong Kong as massive projects swarm to the city.

Mercier structured the school within just a year and has created a curriculum inspired by European design education. The school occupies 4000 sq ft in an industrial building in 77 Sheung On Street, Chai Wan, Hong Kong.

Currently, Insight is workingon offering diploma courses that will be recognized on an international scale, although Hong Kong does not consider interior design as a field of education. Other schools offer the course mainly as a module to other design programs of related disciplines such as graphic design and product design.

Because of this, Insight offers their students an exchange program to a master class at the KLC School of Design in London. The one-week program will expose Insight’s students to British design education with field trips to historic houses, showrooms and specialist finishing studios.

Insight offers all of their classes in English. Students can choose the short course programs which are taught in the evening and on Saturday. The one-year diploma which will be offered starting September 15 2014 will be split into residential interior design and commercial design. Each section will meet for three months or for two days a week for one year. After finishing one of the two sections, students will receive a certificate. Students who will take both sections will graduate with a diploma.

The one-year diploma costs HK$ 245,000 while the cost for short courses range from HK$1,990 to HK$3590.