While studying Spatial Design at WdKA, you will be taking practical classes, learning about analysis, use of materials, architecture, model and mockup building techniques, drawing, software programmes, light-colour-texture and presentation techniques. You will also be taking classes in professional theory and history.
Cities, buildings, interiors: all of these have a huge impact on how we experience the world. In spatial design, we consider the urban environment as well as indoor and outdoor spaces on a small and large scale. It is a discipline that creatively combines cultural and artistic awareness, social engagement, economic responsibility and technical insight.
You will learn to deal with the complex tasks and situations facing contemporary society. You will learn to develop a personal vision and to concretely implement this vision within a design practice. The teaching method focuses on projects that address contemporary themes such as sustainability, identity and the repurposing of buildings. Projects in previous years included an ‘instant museum’, a flagship store for a new brand, a long-stay hotel in an industrial area of Rotterdam, a multicultural theatre in a church in Rotterdam’s Zuidwijk district, and creative use of empty spaces in the city centre of Rotterdam.
While working on design projects, you will also be taking practical classes, learning about analysis, the use of materials, architecture, model/mockup building techniques, drawing, software programmes, light/colour/texture techniques and presentation techniques. You will also be taking classes in professional theory and history. Furthermore, you have the option of participating in an exchange programme with partner institutes in cities such as Barcelona, Glasgow or Helsinki. Graduates find work as interior designers, assistant architects, object designers (for interior and exterior spaces), exhibition designers or spatial designers.
Our students develop ‘21st-century skills’: Creating, Critical Thinking, Communication and Creation.
The professional spatial designer is able to bring together and integrate the following layers:
- Form follows Feeling: spatial composition/drawing, a deep understanding of shape, colour and order in relation to light.
- Form follows Function: human behaviour in relation to objects and space.
- Form follows Flow: movement and circulation of people and goods through a space.
- Form follows Force: designing and building objects using smart materials and appealing textures.
- Form follows Fiction: visualising dreams in digital or analogue 2D and 3D spatial images.
- Form follows Finance: understanding the financial consequences of spatial ideas.
Cover project: Capsule by Laurens & Hendrik.
Open Days & Recruitment activities
Want to know more about life at the Willem de Kooning Academy?
Check out our extended programme, full of (online) activities and interaction with student ambassadors and tutors via this link.
Knowledge & skills
- ‘21th century skills’: critical thinking, communication and creation.
- Understanding of spatial composition, shape, colour and order in relation to light
- Understanding of human behaviour in relation to objects and space
- Designing and building objects
- Knowledge of materials and textures
- Visualising concepts in digital or analogue 2D/3D spatial images
- Translating spatial concept into budget
- ...and more
Career opportunities
- Spatial designer
- Interior designer
- Assistant architect
- Object designer for interior and exterior spaces
- Exhibition designer
- Festival designer
- ...and more
Next to 13 majors and three Practices WdKA offers its students high-tech meeting interdisciplinary spaces - Stations. Stations are the place for creating prototypes, experimenting, remixing and improving your ideas. All of the Willem de Kooning Academy’s students and staff members are welcome to work in our Stations, regardless of their major specialisation, minor, elective module or study year. The Stations are where you can explore the viability of your ideas and find out how to turn them into fully-functioning creations.
Dual Degree programme
Do you have an artistic or a musical talent, as well as a hunger for academic knowledge? You can now mix arts and academia in metropolitan Rotterdam. Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) and Codarts offer you the possibility to combine theory and practice in a five-year Dual Degree programme.
