Programme Director Product, Furniture and Interiors
Mark Gower leads our BA Interior Architecture & Design, BA Product Furniture & Design and MA Product Design courses at UCA Farnham and he is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Bio
Before joining the university, Mark was Principal Lecturer and Head of the Fashion and Design Programmes at Regent’s University London where he also practiced in the field of design.
Mark graduated from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 1999 with an MA in Architecture and Interiors and formerly attended Kingston University, where he achieved a BA (Hons) in Interior Design with First Class Honours. While at the RCA Mark received a commendation for his dissertation entitled ‘Football's hidden Architecture'.
Mark has worked with various design companies, including Imagination Ltd. and Studio db, on projects ranging from the recent redevelopment of Fenwick on Bond Street, to designing a European tour stage set for a pop band. Mark has been responsible for leading design teams for major clients in the UK and worldwide including Hong Kong and India. His clients have included Aquascutum, B&Q, Land Rover and Eureka! The museum for Children
Research statement
Current research aims to illustrate that football’s interior architecture is more than just an arena to watch a football match but contains relationships between significant architectural signposts and footballers/occupants on the field of play. Mark is investigating the relationships between these signposts and its occupants and exploring the important role that interior architecture of a football arena can play. Mark has identified that current football architecture ignores the impact it can have in aiding player’s actions and performance.
Output Publication 2019: ENCOMPASSING: RESEARCH Essays from the School of Crafts and Design, UCA
Output Publication 2019: How stadium architecture gives football teams the home advantage, ICON https://www.iconeye.com/opinion/comment/football-stadium-architecture-advantage
Other research interests consists of a cluster of related activities/output around the underpinning theme of the role of physical “making” in interior design processes, resulting in dissemination in a number of formats and contexts. While the relationship between making, and designing has been a focus of my thinking and pedagogy for 12 years, with this submission I am coalescing this practice-based expertise into outputs for dissemination and impact in the field. The elements of the cluster are as follows: Co-editorship of IE Studio: Making and submission of paper titled: Transformative learning, making space - A Case Study of Trans-Institutional Peer-to-Peer Learning.
Book Proposal: Mastering the Art of Design Conversations.
Written as a joint endeavour between Mark, an interior designer and Dr. Elaine Kaskett, a counselling psychologist, Mastering the Art of Design Conversations translates skills from the fields of psychology, psychotherapy, qualitative research, and even mediation into the interior design context, teaching both trainee and qualified interior designers to conduct more skilled, more powerful, more truly collaborative assessments of clients’ needs. Through simple explanation of relevant psychological theory and numerous practical examples, the book will help designers go beyond nuts-and-bolts, surface-level discussions about client’s needs and preferences and to have deeper, more values-driven conversations about what is important in clients’ life and work.
Professional Membership, Affiliation and Consultancy
HEA Senior Fellow
IE Chair of Futures; Interior Educators Council:
Interior Design is a renaissance subject and I lead its national development with
colleagues in Interior Educators (IE). In 2014 I was appointed to IE Council as Chair
of Futures
Co-editorship: IE:Studio Issue II 'Making'. April 2018
Associate editor: IE:Studio Issue I 'Edges'. September 2017
Editor: ‘View From The Park’ Publication: 70 page independent publication. May 2017
Editor: ‘View From The Fourth Floor’ Publication: 64 page independent publication. May 2016
External Examining:
October 2014 – Present
Middlesex University
Collaborative Partner – Marbella Design Academy
BA (Hons) Fashion Design
BA (Hons) Graphic Design
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture
September 2015 – Present
Manchester Metropolitan University
BA (Hons) Interior Design