Dezeen School Shows: a theatre in London designed for international students, refugees, asylum seekers, early-career workers and first-generation migrants is among projects from Middlesex University.

Also featured is a charity-led music library and recording studio seeking to reduce youth crime and a civic-religious space aiming to counteract loneliness.

Middlesex University

Courses: BA (Hons) Interior Architecture, BA (Hons) Interior Design and MA Interiors (Architecture and Design)
Tutors: Rebecca Disney, Jason Scoot, Naomi House, Alex Tzortzis, Jon Mortimer, Michael Westthorp and Francesca Murialdo

School statement:

"At Middlesex University London, BA (Hons) Interior Architecture, BA (Hons) Interior Design and MA Interiors (Architecture and Design) students investigate the power of interiors to respond to the urgent challenges of our time, from climate responsibility and adaptive reuse to social inclusion and new ways of living, working and connecting.

"Working with existing buildings, communities and real-world contexts, students learn to see interiors as evolving spaces shaped by people, memory, culture and change.

"Through research-led design, experimentation and making, they develop proposals that question conventions and imagine more sustainable and meaningful futures.

"Our studio culture encourages collaboration, curiosity and individual voices. Students are supported to become critical designers who combine creative thinking with practical skills – from drawing, digital technologies and material exploration to storytelling and communication.

"The projects presented here celebrate the diversity of approaches within Middlesex Interiors: from intimate spatial experiences to larger questions of reuse, belonging and transformation.

"Together, they demonstrate how the next generation of designers can create spaces with purpose, responsibility and impact.

"Interior Architecture and Interior Design at Middlesex is a top-ten Guardian-ranked course, reaching as high as third in the UK.

"Strong NSS results highlight teaching quality, academic support and studio culture, while placements and career-focused learning prepare students to contribute creatively and responsibly across diverse sectors."

Discreet Communities: Between Permanence and Drift by Nicoleta Mereuta

"Winning the Progressing Students Award for Interior Educators Conference Award 2026, Discreet Communities: Between Permanence and Drift reimagines the London Canal Museum as a dynamic interior landscape shaped by seasonally controlled water levels.

"Responding to the spatial constraints and transitory nature of canal boat living, the project provides London's bargees community with a dedicated space for wellbeing and social connection.

"Drawing on the site's history of ice storage and canal infrastructure, the museum's historic ice wells are transformed into thermal environments that adapt throughout the year.

"In winter, the building becomes a sheltered retreat for yoga, bathing and communal gathering. In summer, flooded ice wells activate a floating spa that rises through the building, reconnecting occupants with the canal."

Student: Nicoleta Mereuta
Course: BA (Hons) Interior Architecture

The Care Exchange: Community-Led Social Infrastructure for Postnatal Care, Inclusion and Collective Wellbeing by Rachel Koh

"Rachel Koh's interior architecture project challenges the fragmentation and isolation experienced during postnatal care.

"The Care Exchange reframes care as a civic right, not a clinical afterthought, creating a community-embedded infrastructure for mothers, caregivers and families.

"Rejecting sterile healthcare environments, it proposes a hybrid hub where rest, healthcare, learning and social connection coexist.

"By weaving together support networks, intergenerational spaces and partnerships with local organisations, the project positions care as a collective social practice.

"It argues that meanwhile sites can reveal, and even repair, the social fractures that leave new parents unseen."

Student: Rachel Koh
Course: BA (Hons) Interior Architecture

Loneliness in Resonance: The Space That Listens by Jaden Siew

"Part of our live project, Practices of Reuse initiative, Jaden Siew's interior architecture proposal, developed with A Space for Us: The People's Museum in Somers Town, London, recasts St Mary's Church as a hybrid civic-religious space that confronts loneliness head-on.

"Through spatial mapping, sensory choreography and material provocation, she turns the church into an acoustic landscape where isolation becomes something you can hear, touch and move through.

"A tensile fabric-and-timber system stretches, slackens and shifts the interior, exposing voices, memories and shared traces. Visitors travel from Alone, In-between, Together and Return, encountering gentle connections without pressure."

Student: Jaden Siew
Course: BA (Hons) Interior Architecture

Lost Places: Homes – Architecture, Memory and the Aftermath of Displacement by Yui Shiroyama

"Yui Shiroyama's interior architecture writing journal examines what happens emotionally and architecturally when people lose their homes, tracing a three-part narrative through Pripyat, Torre David and Kiruna.

"Each case study reveals a different stage in the journey from displacement to reconstruction, showing how built form becomes a vessel for memory and identity.

"A participatory exercise asking 'What makes you feel at home?' produced a collective visual archive of personal objects, exposing shared values across diverse backgrounds.

"Together, the research positions architecture as an empathetic medium capable of helping displaced communities rebuild belonging."

Student: Yui Shiroyama
Course: BA (Hons) Interior Architecture

The Reference Room by Bridget Loftus

"A hybrid of theory and practice through material reference. The Reference Room reimagines interior design as a thoughtful, circular practice where public engagement, professional research and material reuse come together.

"Combining a sustainable homeware shop, café, exhibition space, reference library, materials archive, shared workspaces and designer-in-residence studio, the project invites visitors and designers to experience materials as both resource and story.

"Using reclaimed and natural materials, reversible construction and adaptable detailing, it reduces waste while celebrating texture, history and longevity.

"Rather than treating reuse as compromise, the project shows how responsible material choices can create richness, character and value, offering a timely model for sustainable, experiential design."

Student: Bridget Loftus
Course: BA Interior Design

Diffusing Social Barriers through Music by Bryony Johnson

"Sirlute's proposed central hub extends the charity's mission to reduce youth crime by widening access to the creative industries and supporting local talent.

"Centred on a music library, music-making spaces and recording studio, the project gives young people from under-resourced communities free access to mentoring, skills training and musical expression.

"It promotes inclusivity by bringing different social demographics together, creating a non-judgmental space where identity, confidence and life skills can develop through collaboration.

"Through social interaction, creative practice and shared experience, the hub supports mental well-being, strengthens community connection and empowers emerging youth culture."

Student: Bryony Johnson
Course: BA Interior Design

Between Presence by Arina Bielikova

"Soak is a thoughtful wellness environment that explores how openness, privacy and community can coexist in contemporary live-work culture.

"Sponsored by an international wellness brand, the three-storey space supports two recent graduates as they build professional confidence within the wellness industry, making their learning, dedication and daily rituals gently visible rather than hidden.

"A kinetic translucent façade, layered thresholds and filtered light create a carefully moderated relationship between residents and visitors, encouraging trust, connection and shared presence.

"Drawing on spa rituals, steam and soft bodily references, the project offers an intelligent, responsible model of care, where design nurtures people, careers and community."

Student: Arina Bielikova
Course: BA Interior Design

Theatre for Migrants by Migrants by Maria Balaban

"Theatre for Migrants by Migrants proposes a hybrid theatre studio and community venue where acting-based group classes become a practical tool for wellbeing, language confidence and belonging.

"Designed for new Londoners, including international students, refugees, asylum seekers, early-career workers and first-generation migrants, the project creates a consistent weekly 'third place' beyond school, therapy or nightlife.

"In a compact heritage setting, flexible performance, social and safeguarding spaces support playful collaboration, spoken English and low-pressure connection.

"Thoughtful, responsible design positions creative expression as a civic right, helping reduce isolation, build confidence and strengthen shared community identity across cultures in the city."

Student: Maria Balaban
Course: BA Interior Design

Group project: Phoenix Cinema

"MA and BA Interior students at Middlesex University collaborated on a live brief to redesign the foyer of East Finchley's Phoenix Cinema, a beloved art-house venue and one of the UK's oldest continuously running cinemas.

"Blending community insight with imaginative spatial thinking, student teams produced four distinct proposals celebrating the Phoenix's heritage while enhancing visitor experience.

"The client described them as 'four outstanding design proposals, each offering a unique vision for the future of the Phoenix'.

"The project gave students hands-on industry experience, culminating in the exciting prospect that one of their designs will be built and enjoyed by local audiences."

Students: Abyudh Gajja, Marco Leung, Alex Smith, Niloofar Toutounchi, Sharnagati Bhosale, Parisa Naserbakht, Hibah Sadiq, Glehan Segera, Ammarah Ismath, Joanne Lai, Bridget Loftus, Shaun Yow, Sava Alam, Yee Mon Aung, Methmi Dankoluwage, Tehreem Kashif and Nasrin Najafabadi
Course: MA Interiors

Open Frameworks by Methmi Dankoluwage

"Developed in our MA Interiors programme, the project frames Adaptive Reuse as a record of participation over a highly extended time period.

"The currently vacant Pentland commercial campus site, in North London, will evolve over many years. The existing structural frame remains, while new architectural interventions extend beyond the moment of design, responding to future needs.

"Rather than a fixed proposal, the project creates conditions for adaptation, repair and refinement, allowing users to become active authors through ongoing acts of use, maintenance, modification and collective engagement.

"By embracing incompletion as sustainable practice, Open Frameworks ensures the site can be utilised even in phases of disrepair, aligning with the programme's focus on adaptive reuse and radical sustainability."

Student: Methmi Dankoluwage
Course: MA Interiors

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and Middlesex University. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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