Creative Cape Town

photo by Yasser Booley

@ unit A207, The Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock
27 September 2010

A young guy in skinny jeans is measuring a pole behind me. “It’s 20cm,” he says to his friend, and I wonder why that’s important. Turns out these are first years on their very first day at BHC School Of Design, and they’ve been briefed with an assignment already.  The difference is that these students will have the opportunity to experience their own design built into their everyday environment. We’re standing in their canteen, and they’re been tasked with giving it their own look and feel to enjoy together through the course of the academic year. Now that’s a warm welcome!

It’s also quite a task for a student new to design education, considering the rest of the premises looks like it just stepped out of an interior design magazine.  It’s one of the attractions at BCH; the school embodies its course content quite impeccably. Ok, I didn’t see the toilets, but that’s because everything was so interesting, I forgot! A pretty young thing is sitting unsurely on a comfy couch in the entrance and Janeske Brits, the short course facilitator, invites her to join us. Upstairs, the atmosphere is buzzing with second and third years already busy with projects on their first day back after a short break. We get a guided tour of the library, lecture rooms, communal spaces and classrooms. If you can call a white-floored, high-ceilinged, rafter-decorated two-story, sun-filled space a classroom. It’s a beautiful environment to work in, with a view of the surrounding industrial area out the windows on both of the upper floors.

The School sits tucked away at the back of the Old Biscuit Mill, neighboured by stylish stores and frequented by stylish people. Their courses are fully accredited by the Department Of Education and they’ve collaborated with the University of Hertfordshire, UK, to promote the sharing of research, teaching, practises and design development on an international level.

BHC offers full time and part time courses in Interior Design, short courses in Interior Decorating and Presentation Drawing as well as in Photoshop, Autocad and Google Sketchup software. There’s an industry-ready short course for Sustainable Design and Guest House Design And Management, which is most fitting in our urban and geographical context as a tourist destination. Yes, trés Cape Town! Now where’s my latte, honey?

Coffee’s in the library, which is an inviting, open plan space filled with contemporary publications on the subject. We chat about Recognition Of Prior Learning, and BHC graduate advantage in the working world. BHC places their students in intern/ job shadow positions with companies that prefer the quality output the institution is renowned for, and often maintain those ties when students graduate. And whether or not a student lands a position with one of these companies in the future, one of the most important parts of this shadowing process is the industry feedback after a placement is completed. This is a chance for students to apply what they learnt to their own work. And we all need chances like that.

We also need chances in other areas, and to this end the school has partnered with investors to offer bursaries to historically disadvantaged learners and/or learners with extreme financial need. This does not include being broke because you drank away your allowance on Saturday, though.

Another advantage of studying at BHC has to be the green project, an ‘e village’ just up the road. BHC works with Oude Moulin on a macro and micro development level, conceptualising business and low income spaces for the government premises in dire need of TLC and design innovation.

I’m marvelling at the view when a crash resonates from upstairs. We investigate further and find the culprit, a modular, dark wood cabinet held together with magnets. It’s beautiful to look at, but it still needs some work to be fully practical. In an environment like this, that can only be a pleasure.