Working in India: Teaching Interior Architecture at Raffles Millennium International
/I moved from the UK to Bangalore to help launch a new campus for the Singaporean design school Raffles Millennium International (RMI). I originally came on a two-year contract to lead the Interior (Architectural) Design department, but two visa extensions, a promotion to Acting Academic Director, and a renewed contract later, I am still here and still grateful to be doing work I love.
As the first lecturer in the Interior Architecture department, I have delivered every subject across both the Degree and Diploma programmes. I built the department from its very first student. We grew from 1 student to 3, then to 10, and now to hundreds, supported by both local and international faculty, full-time and part-time.
It is now mid-term, and the studios, classrooms, and corridors are buzzing with noise, pressure, and creativity - the kind that reminds you why design education matters.
Yesterday, during a Creativity and Concept Development class, I was lecturing second-term students on Presentation Techniques and found myself getting inspired right alongside them. That is what I love about teaching - when you are so passionate about what you are teaching, it fuels you too. It often makes me want to do my own design work again, although finding time is difficult when I work full-time and prepare lectures in the evenings and at weekends.
Our academic calendar runs differently here. We have four intakes per year, each term is three months long, there are no summer holidays, and we work every second Saturday. It is full-on, but I am enjoying it.
Below are some photos from a recent workshop I ran on campus, along with some of my degree students’ 3D work. The images were taken during an open day for prospective students interested in Interior Architecture. Over two days, I led a workshop where they designed and built a future city model at scale, and then presented their concepts to the class. It was challenging and fun, and their results were outstanding.
My First Conference at IIT Delhi
Last week, I had the honour of both speaking at and chairing a session at the National Conference on Excellence in Higher Education, hosted by IIT Delhi.
My paper, From Instructor-Based Teaching to Student-Centric Learning, explored alternative approaches to art and design education, rooted in my experience working within the Indian education system in schools and our design college. I shared practical strategies for motivating young designers, discussing our week one project, where we get students to refocus and prepare for a new term with a different creative group studio project, and discussed ways to build studio environments where students take ownership of their learning rather than passively receiving instruction.
I presented to an audience of more than 350 delegates, and the response was incredibly encouraging. The discussion that followed was lively and rigorous, with educators questioning, challenging, and expanding on one another’s ideas. It was exactly the kind of dialogue that moves education forward, and I was proud to be a part of it.
Leaving the conference, I felt energised and grateful, inspired by the commitment of so many passionate academics, and excited to continue contributing to the evolution of student-centred learning in India.
