Overview of the Major

Environmental Design falls under the category of design disciplines, awarding a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. As an essential component of human settlement design, Environmental Design encompasses architectural engineering technology, humanities, arts, and urban landscape, focusing primarily on the research of indoor and outdoor human settlement environment design and environmental creation practices. It aims to cultivate individuals who are comprehensively developed in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor aspects, possess good humanistic and artistic literacy, systematically master the basic theories and professional skills of Environmental Design, have a spirit of innovation and creativity, can adapt to the needs of contemporary social development, possess strong team collaboration, lifelong learning abilities, and a global perspective, and are willing to explore and take responsibility as high-level applied design talents.

The development of Environmental Design in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is at the forefront of the country. With the economic transformation and upgrading of the country, the industries corresponding to Environmental Design are also undergoing continuous changes. The development of environmental design in industries such as real estate, architectural decoration, exhibition, and landscape architecture is shifting from large-scale to micro-scale, from new construction to urban renewal, and from urban to rural areas, leading to corresponding changes in the demand for professionals. Environmental design professionals are required to possess design creativity, service design abilities, engineering design practical abilities, project organization and coordination abilities, as well as environmental design professional thinking and aesthetic abilities.

Training Objectives

This major primarily targets the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, aiming to cultivate individuals who are comprehensively developed in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor aspects, possessing homeland emotions, a healthy personality, an international perspective, craftsmanship spirit, and innovation ability. They should master the basic theories and professional skills of Environmental Design, possess certain abilities in environmental space design, micro-landscape design, holistic furnishing and interior design, green environmental design, digital exhibition design, service design, and design management, as well as good comprehensive qualities. They should proficiently grasp techniques for environmental design professional rendering, engineering drawing standards, decorative material usage, engineering technology, digital design, and intelligent technology. They should possess strong abilities in design project planning, scheme presentation, construction drawing, material analysis and procurement, service design, and design management. They are expected to engage in project planning, scheme design, rendering, construction drawing, material analysis and procurement, service design, and design management positions in areas such as human settlement design, urban micro-landscape and urban renewal, rural environment and rural housing design, holistic furnishing and interior design, and interdisciplinary comprehensive design.

Knowledge and Abilities

Professional ethics: Possess a firm and correct political orientation, good ideological and moral character, and a sound personality. Love the country and the people, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Have a scientific spirit, humanistic cultivation, cultural taste, professional ethics, and an enterprising spirit. Care about social issues and national development, possess a sense of social responsibility, and actively participate in social practice. Able to disseminate Chinese excellent culture, understand national conditions, social conditions, and people's lives, and practice socialist core values.

Subject knowledge abilities: Possess systematic and solid basic knowledge, subject professional knowledge, and subject professional skills in Environmental Design. Understand the history, current status, and frontiers of the major and related disciplines, master research ideas and methods of the major, and understand relevant policies, regulations, and conventions at home and abroad, as well as the expansion of subject knowledge.

Application abilities: Possess cross-disciplinary knowledge integration abilities, able to comprehensively utilize relevant knowledge and skills to analyze and solve complex problems in the major or related fields, propose corresponding countermeasures or solutions, and analyze the policy basis, social environment, and possible social impact of the countermeasures and solutions. Possess project management, design, and project implementation application abilities.

Innovation abilities: Possess logical thinking abilities, a critical spirit, and reflective consciousness. Able to organize and conduct investigations and research using research ideas and methods in Environmental Design, discover, analyze, summarize, and evaluate phenomena and issues in the major and related fields, form personal judgments, insights, or countermeasures, and possess strong innovation and entrepreneurship abilities.

Information abilities: Possess basic English knowledge, strong reading and translation abilities, and certain oral communication abilities. Have instrumental knowledge in computer and information technology applications, literature retrieval, data inquiry, and thesis writing. Proficient in using relevant office software to carry out professional-related business.

Communication and expression abilities: Possess strong communication and expression abilities, able to use accurate and standardized language and writing to logically express opinions, effectively communicate with peers and the general public, and possess certain promotional and dissemination abilities.

Teamwork abilities: Have good teamwork spirit, interpersonal communication, and social activities basic abilities. Able to harmoniously coexist with team members and collaborate to complete complex tasks.

International perspective: Understand and respect the differences and diversity of world cultures, keep abreast of international trends in Environmental Design, pay attention to major issues in areas such as green environmental design, rural revitalization, and urban and rural renewal, possess the ability to conduct international exchanges and cooperation, and inherit Lingnan design culture.

Learning and development abilities: Possess self-planning, self-management, self-learning, and lifelong learning abilities, as well as strong innovative spirits, entrepreneurship awareness, and certain independent entrepreneurship abilities.

Characteristics of the Environmental Design Major

This major aligns with the industries in the Greater Bay Area, following the OBE (Outcome-Based Education) philosophy of "student-centeredness, output orientation, and continuous improvement." It constructs talent cultivation programs and curricula closely aligned with industrial demands, featuring collaborative training between government, schools, and enterprises.

Provincial characteristic undergraduate major

This major is a provincial characteristic undergraduate major, boasting provincial first-class courses as its core curriculum in curriculum construction. In terms of scientific research, it has a key research platform for green environmental design and a research platform for rural revitalization.

Multi-channel cooperative teaching

The major conducts school-enterprise cooperation in talent cultivation, school-enterprise collaborative construction of industrial colleges, laboratories, and practical teaching bases. It has established a practical teaching system based on on-campus experiments, extended by off-campus practice, supplemented by participating in competitions and exhibitions, and expanded through innovation and entrepreneurship.

Abundant enterprise project practice opportunities

The major conducts industry-university-research collaborative innovation, introducing enterprise engineering projects and design competition projects into teaching, emphasizing "real problems and real solutions" in project-based teaching. This allows students to gain early exposure to actual enterprise engineering projects, enhancing their practical abilities. Graduates are renowned in the Pearl River Delta architectural decoration industry for their proficiency in drawing standard decorative construction drawings and exquisite realistic renderings.

Artificial intelligence empowering professional education

The major focuses on the forefront of the discipline, pays attention to artificial intelligence technology, continuously explores and practices the integrated innovation of AI+education, virtual reality+education, and platform+education, empowering professional education, and cultivating future design innovators.

Dual international teaching pathways

Students in this major can choose the "2+2" or "3+1.5" dual credit exchange study mode with Edith Cowan University in Australia. After studying for 2 years or 3 years at their home institution, they can choose to study for the remaining 2 years or 1.5 years at Edith Cowan University, obtaining dual bachelor's degrees from both institutions.

Core Courses of the Major

Fundamentals of Modeling, Composition, Interior Decoration Drawing, Decorative Materials and Construction, Interior and Exterior Hand-drawn Renderings, Environmental Design CAD, Interior and Exterior 3D Rendering, Residential Space Design, Public Space Design, Landscape Design.

Practical Teaching

On-campus concentrated practical teaching links: Comprehensive Environmental Design CAD Training, Comprehensive Interior and Exterior 3D Rendering Training, Special Design for Human Settlements, Computer-Aided Design (SketchUp), Public Space Scheme Design, Interior Thematic Design.

Enterprise practical teaching projects: Online self-study extension module courses, professional ethics education, regional, industry, enterprise research (choose one of three), professional (production) internships, graduation internships, and graduation designs.

Teaching Conditions

Teaching equipment

Relying on our school's overall design plan for building a "digitalized" and "intelligent" campus, the Environmental Design major possesses advanced and complete teaching equipment, which can well satisfy students' needs for classroom learning and extracurricular practice.

Laboratories

The Environmental Design major boasts well-equipped and fully functional professional laboratories such as the Architectural Decoration Construction Technology Laboratory, Interior Holistic Furnishing Technology Laboratory, 3D Rendering Laboratory, Hand-drawn Expression Technique Room, Digital Design Laboratory, Creative Design Studio, Model Craft Laboratory, Computer-Aided Design Room, Art Design Project Studio, Art Studio, Course Design Room, and Art Design Interactive Laboratory. These facilities can fully meet the teaching needs of all experimental courses in Environmental Design.

Practice bases

The Environmental Design major attaches great importance to the construction and planning of practice bases. It has established 84 off-campus practice bases and established long-term cooperation relationships with numerous high-quality well-known enterprises such as the Guangdong Provincial Architectural Decoration Materials Industry Association, Huaning Decoration Group, Hansen Bosen International Design Group, Guangzhou Size Design Co., Ltd., and Zhaokeli Integrated Assembly Technology Co., Ltd. These bases can well meet the needs of students' on-the-job production internships and graduation internships during their fourth year of study.

Employment Prospects

After graduation, students can work in relevant enterprises and institutions in industries such as construction, decoration, engineering supervision, real estate, holistic furnishing, and customized furniture, engaging in positions like indoor and outdoor environmental design, decorative engineering construction management, engineering project planning, and design services. They can also pursue teaching careers in vocational colleges.

Faculty Team

The professional is headed by Professor Chen Huagang, a renowned teaching expert in Guangdong Province and the former dean of the School of Art and Design. The faculty team consists of 15 full-time teachers and 6 externally hired enterprise teachers. Among them, there are 8 teachers with senior titles, 10 with intermediate titles, 2 with doctoral degrees, and 18 with master's degrees. Additionally, 3 part-time teachers with associate professor or higher titles are employed. Enterprise experts are also invited to serve as practical mentors and graduation design mentors. A collaborative teacher training mechanism involving schools, enterprises, and industry associations has been established, fostering a unique "dual-teacher" teaching team that meets the needs of cultivating professional and applied talents.