(Photo from Diwan Facebook page)
By Yomna El-Saeed
Diwan bookstores offer an array of courses in different fields. Besides creative writing and journalism courses, they also present courses in other creative fields like photography, fashion design, painting, decoration and interior design. “It’s the second time to give a course specialised in this topic with high technicality,” said Nihal, from Diwan’s marketing department. “We got really good feedback from the attendees the last time, so we are [repeating it] and organising a new course, level two, that will be starting on 26 September and is purely design oriented.” The level two course addresses different areas of interior design and “one can attend the second without necessarily attending the first,” Nihal added.
The repetition of the level one course is starting today, 16 September, at Diwan’s Heliopolis branch. People can still apply today before they attend the first class. The course is comprised of four sessions, which take place twice a week. Thus far, 53 people have signed up for the course.
The interior design course discusses many different areas of the field; how to read, understand and draw an architectural plan, make an accurate quantity survey of the finishing materials and control the cost of raw material and other expenses; it also teaches about the right sequence of the finishing processes along with other technical details, as mentioned in the course description.
The interior design course is taught by engineer Ahmed Zahran, an architect and designer. He graduated in 2008, majoring in architecture, from the Faculty of Fine Arts. He then continued his education getting a master’s degree from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Rome, ”La Sapienza,” in Italy in 2010. Zahran worked as an architect for well-known architectural firms in Egypt and the Middle East and also worked as a freelance designer for several offices and clients.
Interior design is different from interior decoration, although the latter can be a part of it. Interior design involves transforming a space into an efficient area that is geared towards a specific use. Architecture plays a major role in interior design, as it defines the boundaries of a space. A successful interior designer creates an environment that is balanced and provides all the necessary elements for it to be optimally used.
