Bloomington, Indiana – Indiana University Bloomington’s interior design program has reached a milestone few academic programs ever achieve — its 100th anniversary. What began a century ago as a home economics discipline aimed at training women in the art and science of homemaking has transformed into a cutting-edge field centered on research, technology, and human well-being.
Over the last hundred years, interior design at IU Bloomington has evolved from teaching students how to manage households to preparing professionals who shape environments that improve people’s lives. Today’s students graduate ready to design hospitals that promote healing, offices that enhance productivity, and public spaces that foster inclusivity and accessibility.
The program’s century-long journey mirrors the changing role of design itself — from decoration to problem-solving, from aesthetics to purpose.
From Homemaking to Human-Centered Design
The origins of IU Bloomington’s interior design program trace back to 1913, when the university established its Department of Home Economics. Back then, the curriculum reflected the societal norms of the early 20th century, training young women in the “principles and processes of the science and art of homemaking.”
In 1925, the department hired Emma Baie, a faculty member who taught courses in house decoration, dressmaking, textiles, and clothing. That year marked the official birth of the interior design program. The department also introduced a unique learning space known as the Home Management House, where students lived for a semester to practice all aspects of running a household.
Inside that home, students decorated rooms, entertained guests, cooked, cleaned, and even cared for a baby — yes, a real baby. Each semester, local parents, often IU faculty or staff, loaned their infants to the Home Management House so students could learn child care firsthand. Faculty supervisors oversaw the students’ efforts while parents retrieved their children on weekends and holidays.
While this might seem like an unusual classroom by today’s standards, it gave early students practical experience in the kinds of domestic management and design skills that were considered essential at the time. Graduates went on to work not only in private homes but also in hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and retail — settings that began to define interior design as a professional practice beyond homemaking.
Fast forward a century, and the field looks completely different.
“We’re about people, not paint and pillows,” said Kim Dutkosky, director of the interior design program in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. “We aim to be human-centric in our design, so we teach about human behavior and psychology and how these impact the design of the built environment.”
Modern interior designers must meet rigorous professional standards, including certification from the Council for Interior Design Qualification, which emphasizes planning and designing interior spaces that prioritize health, safety, and welfare. Students study environmental psychology, sustainable materials, building codes, and accessibility standards, merging creativity with responsibility.
Designing for Healing and Well-Being
Few alumni embody the field’s evolution better than Jamie Raymond, who graduated from IU Bloomington in 1999 after initially earning a degree in marketing.
When Raymond first told her father that she planned to go back to school for interior design, he couldn’t understand why she wanted to become a “decorator.” That misconception — that interior design is simply about choosing furniture or paint colors — is one that Raymond and her peers have spent their careers dispelling.
After earning her degree, Raymond joined an architecture firm in Indianapolis before co-founding Four Point Design in 2015 with business partner Diana Ricks. Their firm focuses on space planning and interior design for healthcare, wellness, and higher education clients.
Their portfolio reads like a map of Indiana’s modern healthcare infrastructure: Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, the IU Bloomington Health Sciences Building, the Parkview Cancer Institute in Fort Wayne, and most recently, Riley Children’s Health Emergency Medicine at IU Health Fishers, the region’s first specialized pediatric emergency center.
“In the healthcare sector, people think that it’s going to be really institutional and sterile,” Raymond said. “I tell them to look around at healthcare spaces today. They’re beautiful spaces for people to heal.”
For Raymond, design is not about surface beauty but about supporting emotional and physical recovery. Every color choice, piece of furniture, and lighting fixture plays a role in helping patients and families feel safe, calm, and hopeful.
Looking Ahead with AI and Virtual Reality
While the program’s early days were rooted in hands-on household management, today’s students and faculty are embracing tools that would have seemed like science fiction a century ago.
Assistant Professor Hoa Vo, a researcher in IU’s interior design program, is leading groundbreaking studies that use artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) to understand how people interact with architectural spaces before they are even built. A recipient of the 2025 IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship, Vo develops virtual environments that allow participants to explore digital versions of designed spaces.
As people move through these virtual environments, Vo’s AI system tracks their motion, studying how they navigate rooms, where they linger, and what areas they avoid.
“This gives designers a ton of information about how people experience the environment before building it,” Vo said. “It’s not only about technology; it’s about understanding humans better, how we can reduce resources and help create optimal designs for the environment.”
Vo hopes her work will become a vital tool for architects, designers, and urban planners. By simulating human behavior within virtual spaces, her research could help reduce costly design errors, improve accessibility, and support sustainable practices. More importantly, it underscores how technology can amplify — not replace — human creativity.
A Century of Change and a Future of Purpose
From Emma Baie’s lessons in home decoration to Hoa Vo’s immersive VR research, the interior design program at IU Bloomington has come a long way. What began as an academic home for homemakers is now a hub for innovation and social impact.
Students are no longer learning how to manage a single household — they’re learning how to design hospitals that comfort patients, schools that inspire learning, offices that encourage collaboration, and communities that feel inclusive to all.
Each generation of students builds upon the legacy of those before them, guided by the same principle that has carried the program for 100 years: design is about people.
The 100th anniversary isn’t just a celebration of the program’s longevity — it’s a reminder of how much design matters in everyday life. As cities grow, technologies advance, and social needs shift, IU Bloomington’s interior design program continues to prepare the next generation of designers to meet those challenges with empathy, intelligence, and imagination.
And as Director Kim Dutkosky reminds her students: “We’re about people, not paint and pillows.” That simple truth — a century in the making — will continue to define the program’s next hundred years.
