THE PROFESSION By definition, furnishing and designing public spaces is an interdisciplinary skill. For this reason, sufficient knowledge and expertise in the various disciplines involved is indispensable in this type of design course in order to ensure that all the forces at play are judged on their merits and integrated into a design. Along with substantive design skills based on one of the core disciplines of town planning, landscape architecture, spatial/industrial design, traffic design and visual art, students are required to possess knowledge and experience of methodology, planning, organization, management, presentation and public speaking techniques. The background of the importance of the Urban Interior Design module lies in the need to develop integrated processes of designing, analyzing, furnishing and maintaining the public space. In the past, the public space was furnished under the responsibility of technical departments such as traffic, public works, and park and garden departments usually resulting in well-functioning, neutral spaces. Occasionally, exceptional spaces such as the Champs Elysées were created for special locations by architects and artists. Also, in the 1960s, former traffic areas, such as shopping streets and residential streets were redesigned with the emphasis on pedestrians resulting in pedestrian precincts and pedestrian-friendly residential areas. This was initially carried out by the departments referred to above, with mixed results in visual terms. At the same time, the landscape, artist and architect fraternities started to respond to postwar urban design, which up to then had been functional and efficient. The public thought it was boring. This resulted in what is now known as the frumpishness of the 1970s and 1980s. The response to that period, of course, was another movement which thought those frumpish public spaces were much too cozy, snug and romantic. The new plans involved a simpler design with often richer materials. Thus, the 1980s and 1990s became characterized by the rational, the postmodern and the ruthless. By this time, nearly everyone had an opinion about the design of public spaces. Combined with the increased levels of traffic, different advertising media and insights into the use of the space, and the democratic wish to give everyone what they wanted, this often resulted in a chaos of furniture, paving, functions and a multiplicity of signals. Several of the large municipalities began to realize that action had to be taken. Departments had to start working together and interested parties had to be brought into line with one another. Who was going to bring this about? In the past, this had been the engineers, who were then joined by designers at a later stage and, occasionally, an artist. The professionals came from landscape architecture and general architecture. Neither were really trained to design the public space. A good design requires consultation with a range of departments and disciplines. Consequently, there is a need for interdisciplinarity where people with different specialisms and nationalities are able to co-operate through team work involving designers, technologists and managers. The module Urban Interior Design is designed to fulfill this need.

Programme All Urban Names Intro Femy-Jeanine Bol Ellamarthe Debeij Gaby Getrouw Lianne Goosen Sander Gorter Paul van Hoesel Deborah Lambert Edwin van Son Annette Verhagen Giuliana Vernooy-Fuentes Frank Vonk