Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects Degrees

An art piece comprised of wooden furniture combined with metal grids sits in a windowed room.

Architecture, Interior Architecture, & Designed Objects Department

In the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO), our studios have no boundaries: we are creative across disciplines and we are engaged with our community at SAIC, our context in Chicago, and the world.

Our students are exploring the future of how we live, work, and communicate; asking how design responds to shifting modes of belonging; and ensuring design will address the transcendent challenge of a changing climate.

Student Work

Apple imessages displayed as large signs in an SAIC hallway

"Machines and Angels" by Egon Schiele

Photograph of a large auditorium with an ornate ceiling fixture

"Calibrated Lens" by Calla Flanagan

Work by Edra Soto and Dan Sullivan

Folded cards with gold plating on some of them.

"Stacks on Stacks on Stacks" by Amanda Williams

Schools have a responsibility to model cultures of equity and inclusion. In AIADO, learning is a collaborative project between students and faculty, and we welcome diverse perspectives. Our studio culture foregrounds student practice and responds to student goals with critique that is considered and constructive. We reward risk-taking and understand that failure is part of the creative process.

AIADO students will define the future of design in a changing world, we expect them not only to respond to change, but to drive it. We teach the skills graduates need to enter design professions, the ambition to reimagine them, and the values to guide them as leaders. AIADO futures are design futures.

Pathways in Architecture, Interior Architecture, & Designed Objects

Since 1866, design has been part of SAIC’s ethos of creativity, experimentation, and free expression. AIADO embodies this commitment with undergraduate pathways in architecture, interior Architecture and designed Objects; master of architecture, master of architecture with an interior architecture track, and master of design in Designed Objects degrees; as well as an MFA in Studio.

Graduate Programs
Undergraduate Programs

Professional Practice

Through independent studios and joint ventures, AIADO students gain the ability to translate meaningful ideas into meaningful objects and environments. They challenge the fluid border that outlines design, opening the profession to unexpected possibilities.

Our Partnerships

World-Class Facilities & Resources

We value the craft that brings ideas into the world, the research that informs criticality, and the compelling stories we tell to share our work. With access to the resources of our museum campus, studio arts and liberal arts programs, AIADO offers unique opportunities for students interested in the space where art and design come together.

Check them out

An imposing neon sign reads “ARTISTS NEED TO CREATE ON THE SAME SCALE THAT SOCIETY HAS THE CAPACITY TO DESTROY."

Distinguished Faculty

Our dedicated faculty teach from diverse experience in practices that impact public life and drive public culture. Additionally, the Mitchell Visiting Professor, a renowned practitioner, is appointed to contribute experimental classes to an interdisciplinary community.

Mitchell Visiting Professor: Lauren Bon