By Gabrielle Kennedy / 11-06-2009

Still reeling from the administrative nightmare that pursuing academic accreditation caused, Schrofer and Stompff look tired but relieved.  “It was a real procedure,” says Schrofer, founder of design outfits Concrete, and later Concern, and son of graphic designer Jurriaan Schrofer.  “We made the mistake of starting before we had accreditation assuming that it wouldn’t be that hard to attain.  But that underestimated the Dutch bureaucracy, which forced us to rewrite all our ideas into their unreadable style before giving us the stamp.” 

The whole ordeal took four years during which time three students already graduated.

The cause of the hassle was that Interdisciplinary Spatial Design is new and not very well understood.  “It’s about designing on the intersection between different creative and social professions, the design market and the consumer,” says Stompff.   The style of the programme is also something the Ministry of Education is not familiar with.

The eighteen month course will cost 18 000 euros and mix theoretical study with lectures by industry experts plus a four day work week in a participating design or architectural office.  “All the top name firms are coming on board,” says Schroffer.  “I think the credit crisis is probably helping us because for not much money they are getting help from some very talented students.”

Critical of how the Dutch education system combines undergraduate and graduate study, the idea is to model the Schrofer Academy on the Academie van Bouwkunst, which enables students to get an architecture degree not by going to university, but by concurrently working and studying.

“It is ridiculous that you can come out of a Masters programme with no skills,” says Schrofer.  “Here, an undergraduate degree is not about skills, but concept thinking.  In the Anglo-Saxon model, you also start general but then you work before starting a masters, which is more about specializing and acquiring real skills.”

“Students need to know what they don't know before they can really learn”, says Stompff.

“And they need a real skill apart from just the way they are able to think,” Schrofer adds.

Schrofer left Concrete in 2004 and started Concern to pursue the softer, less commercial side of design.  “I wanted to teach and make things that made a difference,” he says of the (not completely amicable) split with Concrete.  “I wanted to be able to work on things that were of concern to me,” he adds pointing out the root of his new company’s name.”

In the beginning with Concern, Schrofer invited the first academy students in to work for him.  It soon became impossible to find enough space for everyone so he decided to properly separate the school and the company.  He visited 20 other design offices to see who was interested in partnering up with his academy idea, and thus started the Schrofer Academy.

Now students are placed in companies that specialize in all sorts of design and architecture for 4 of the course semesters and placed during the 5th into a completely different creative discipline.  “In Holland there is such a huge difference between graphic design and advertising agencies,” Schrofer says, “and that doesn’t exist in the UK.”

Interdisciplinary designers are not only better connected to industry, but can solve problems using ideas from across the design universe.  “They may not be specialist, but they know what other disciplines are about and know how to cooperate with them,” Stompff says.

“Which is all not very Dutch,” adds Schrofer with all his characteristic iconoclasm.   “You know we have a caste system here.  The Christians, the Catholics and the Muslims all have their own houses of worship and areas to live in.  It’s the same with designers.  Even in the BNO you see different blood groups who can't communicate with each other. ”

“So imagine what would happen if it all worked well together,” says Stompff who has the habit of bringing Schrofer back to the here and now.  “It will add value to the way we live.  We’ll end up with designers with more professional skills.”

Both Schrofer and Stompff speak with passion about the more social role design can play if pursued in an interdisciplinary fashion.  Picking out Nike as an example, they talk about manipulating the full experience.

“But that way of thinking doesn’t have to be for commercial success,” Schrofer says when asked about the more dangerous aspects of such an approach.  “It can work for schools and hospitals too.  And you see it in museums and galleries in Britain and New York where the experience is more of a leisure activity that brings together everything from the architecture, to the art to the people and services.”

Interdisciplinary Design can also come as a surprise to clients who do not even realize that they can provide a fuller experience via design.  “In the 70s everything the PTT (the Dutch postal office) did went via the design department,” says Schrofer.  “Everything from if they bought a chair for the post office to introducing a new stamp was thought of in terms of the fuller experience.”

“I think the interesting thing about design is that you can create a brand with it,” adds Stompff, “but if you think further than that, it can have more social relevance too.”

The Schrofer Academy will accept a maximum of sixteen students a year and for now the language will be Dutch.  “That may change, but quality of communication is very important in education,” says Schrofer.

Schrofer, who is a member of an almost Dutch design dynasty says he had to ask his uncle, Janwillem Schrofer, president of the Rijksakademie, for permission to use his family name.  The academy’s logo is made from his father’s font.



Images: main Schrofer Academy logo, and the school's first three graduates at this week's official launch where Gilian Schrofer and Dingeman Kuilman (advisor to the Board) both spoke.

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