Music, literature, cinema, and painting provide a conceptual and emotional framework that can inspire and nourish architectural practice. The rhythm of a song, the narrative space of a novel, the evocative scenes from cinema, or the use of light and colour in a painting can suggest new ways to create, perceive, and inhabit spaces.

In order to enable students to incorporate knowledge from different cultural and artistic disciplines into the conceptual basis of their projects, putting themselves in the place of the future users of their spaces, as an essential strategy to improve their quality of life, an innovative and creative learning experience has been developed at the Universitat Politècnica de València in the subject of Interior Space, Architecture and City of the Master's Degree in Advanced Architecture, Landscape, Urban Planning and Design, the objectives, methodology, results, and conclusions of which are detailed in this article.

The experience consists in designing an interior space for a fictional character, which the students must select from a literary text, a song, a film, a television series, or a painting. Based on the analysis of the image or text, they must create a multisensory atmosphere ideally suited to the character, expressing its identity and meeting physical and psychological needs, as well as fulfilling wishes and desires, all of which also reflect its historical, social, cultural, economic, and technological context.

In turn, the setting designed must be able to influence the emotional state and behaviours of the inhabitant, prompting feelings of harmony and comfort as well as new life habits contributing to wellbeing. To do so, the proposal must follow a comprehensive interior design approach that addresses all scales, including the relationship to place and the accompanying architecture, as well as the functional organisation, qualities of space and trajectories, materiality, lighting, thermal and acoustic comfort, furniture, and the incorporation of pieces from other artistic disciplines. In short, the experience seeks to enrich students’ cultural baggage and artistic sensibilities, providing valuable knowledge for their future career development.

Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the activity was well received by the students, who expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the learning process and the acquisition of skills, both specific and cross-disciplinary, such as analytical and critical thinking, creativity, innovation, time management, and effective communication.

Keywords: Interior design, inhabit, comprehensive work, visual arts, literature, innovation, problem-solving, critical thinking.