Designer Education...recalling student days 

 

Having spent the previous year living in the heart of Dublin’s north inner city arriving in Writtle was refreshing to say the least. The campus lies adjacent to what one can only describe as the quintessential English village, complete with village green, ducks and characteristic collection of garden mad octogenarians! For my first year I was lucky enough to find digs in the village sharing with 5 girls doing equine studies (an education in its self!).





 

 

The first role call revealed an undercurrent of confident smiles and smart-ass comments. My fellow classmates, just like me, obliviously had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. Over the course of our two-day induction the smiles soon turned to frowns as we learnt the full extent of what lay ahead. Firstly we were amazed to learn that we would be doing no garden designing for the first year! At the end of day two we crawled out of room G08 weighed down with so much paper work and assignment briefs that there was much talk of changing courses to horticulture (where the workload is much less intense!!). As it turned out year one was not as bad as it had seemed. The workload was enormous but it was a year of exploration and discovery. 

 

Initially our teaching had an almost military feel, our preconceptions of design were stripped away, our youthful arrogance was turned to inspired awe and our personalities laid bare but unlike our military counterparts this was in preparation for a journey of self-discovery. Aside from the design basics, line, shape, form, colour, texture, harmony, proportion, scale, balance etc, we were actively encouraged to explore all the arts. We drew, we painted, we sculpted, we walked blind folded about the campus rediscovering our senses and most of all we questioned. We explored theoretical art, analysed compositions and experimented with artistic mediums seeking comfort and freedom of expression. 

 

The final term of year one drew us closer to the realities of design. We laid down our colourful canvasses and willow sculptures and began exploring the complex elements of 3 dimensional space. Like most of my comrades I was initially confused with the idea of designing with negative space, but the confusion turned to clarity on the discovery of a book by the acclaimed Japanese architect Tadoa Ando, his self thought, uncompromising, minimalist manipulation of space both helped me understand the subtleties of spatial arrangement and also to develop a fundamental self belief.

 

 

While our design lecturers encouraged us to explore and challenge we were well grounded with the extent of the subject areas we had to undertake, amongst which were hort and soil science, computer applications, business management, plant maintenance, surveying, drafting and the compulsory weekly idents. By the end of year one the cocky faces that had filled room G08 were pasty from lack of sunlight but eyes were full of inspiration and excitement for what lay ahead.

 

After a summer in New York I was ready to take on year two, or at least I thought I was! The free expressionism and artistic exploration of year one found itself under the spotlight of reality, that particular reality was manifest in landscape construction and documentation. We were now being asked to make real the madness of year one, with all its legal and construction implications. Aside from our newfound expressionism being muted by reality, exposure to design applications such as CAD, 3Dviz, Piranesi and Adobe allowed many to communicate in a visual language, which had previously been unimaginable. Year two also saw us exposed us to the complex area of ecology; a subject that I feel is an absolute must for any designer.

 

Apart from all that other ‘stuff’, we faced our greatest design challenge yet. We had touched on it at the end of year one but now we were thrown into the deep end of the conceptual design process. At first I thought they must have been joking, I was a keen SAD (survey-analysis-design) type-a-guy and was not remotely interested in seeking inspiration for a spatial arrangement from a Magritte painting or abstracting linear patterns from wave action. But a couple of day long conceptual exercises (interpreting music as line-shape and form etc) had me completely sold, so much so that I feel like I have failed a client if I don’t explore every conceptual avenue possible. While many in the design community have argued against the benefits of the conceptual path I have, in my limited experience, found it a great benefit in creating holistic designs that encompass and reflect the client down to the smallest detail. And would encourage all those SAD people to give it a whirl.

 

Year two had been indeed the most difficult of the three; several class mates changed courses or dropped out due to the sheer volume and complex nature of the work load. I reached the end of year two exhausted but I had a head bursting with information a and a Higher National Diploma.

 

After another summer abroad I returned to Writtle brimming with confidence and ready to take on the top up year for the Bsc. Year three saw us as the big boys, we’d learned the theory we’d put it into practise and now it was time from us to fly the nest. 

 

Emerging from the safety and enclosure of the private garden into the public realm is a huge step, while we imagined ourselves to be proficient swimmers, exploring the depths of design we were in fact paddling in the shallow end, armbands on with a group of burly lifeguards watching over us. Now we found ourselves in the deep end and it seemed like we had only each other and extensive reading list to stay afloat. Alas there were a number of casualties but those who stayed on, blossomed. 

 

The entire design year was focused on our dissertation design project, which was the design of a public park and required us to undertake everything from feasibility to certifying final completion. We also had to write a 5000 word academic paper to back up our design, an exercise that brought many to tears but turned out to be the most wonderful of learning experiences. For my paper I researched creativity in design, which allowed me to explore in great depth the work of Geoffrey Jellicoe, Charles Jencks and Maggie Cheswick, Silvia Crowe and Christopher Alexander. It also exposed me to the writings of Richard Stiles, Tom Turner and Kathryn Moore, the latter of which I quote at any available occasion.

Alongside the newfound challenge of the public realm design we had also to contend with Conservation and Planning law and the dreaded Professional Practise module but some light relief was had in Urban Design theory and Interior Planting.

All in all the Writtle Design experience was a great one, it was extremely challenging and I would advise only those with a real passion and enthusiasm to apply. So the next time someone asked you ‘but what do you really do?’ you can tell then from me that your part artist, psychologist, scientist, horticulturalist, carpenter, electrician, planner, ecologist, writer and surveyor (to name but a few!).