Course description

Design and architecture practices come in many shapes and sizes: freelancers, studios, startups, agencies, consultancies, collectives. The ambition of this course is to expose students to a range of these, and to the practical realities of building and sustaining a creative practice.

Through guest talks and practical lectures, this course gives students a closer look at how practices are built and run. Practitioners share how they started, how their work is structured and what they've learned. Each student develops a case for a practice of their own, informed by the examples the course provides.

The course has three objectives:

Understanding

Achieve a foundational understanding of business economics, business models, sales and client relationships.

Practical examples

Learn from various practices in design and architecture, across fields, scales and business models.

Application

Build a case for your own practice that you can take with you beyond the course.

The course is structured around weekly guest lectures from practicing designers, architects and other creative practitioners. All guests follow the same format, “Behind the scenes”, where they speak openly about their work, numbers, failures and learnings.

Alongside the lectures, each student develops a case for an independent practice over the course of the semester. In their case, students take a position on what kind of practice they want to build, and work through the practical and strategic implications of that vision.

• How independent practices in design and architecture are structured and financed
• Business models: startup, studio, agency, consultancy and alternatives
• Pricing, project economy and the realities of year one
• Finding and choosing clients, and knowing what to say no to
• Models of practice: solo, partnerships, collectives, hybrid
• Brand, positioning and portfolio as strategic tools
• Scaling, not scaling, and the relationship between size and creative control

The guest list is updated annually to reflect a mix of fields, scales, career stages and practice models.

Knowledge

With completed studies the student will have a deeper understanding of what is required to establish and run an independent practice in design and architecture, including the economic, strategic and personal dimensions involved.

Skills

With completed studies the student will be able to set up the foundation for an independent practice, including a pricing model, first-year budget, acquisition strategy, positioning and portfolio.

General competence

The student should be able to critically reflect on the choice of business models and business structures, and explain how these choices affect creative practices, autonomy and sustainability.

The course consists of weekly sessions on Tuesdays over approximately 14 weeks, plus a final intensive week.

Week 1 introduces the course and the semester project. Weeks 2–6 and 8–12 each feature a two hour session with a guest lecture and Q&A, followed by project work. Week 7 is a mid-semester review where students present their work in progress. Week 13 is preparation for the intensive week.

During the intensive week at the end of the semester, students finalize their practice case and present it as a pitch to a panel consisting of a selection of the semester's guest lecturers. The final presentation is open and followed by a social gathering.

Between sessions, students work independently on their case, building it incrementally as the guest lectures provide new input and perspectives.

Form of assessment

Assessment folder

Grading scale

Pass / Fail

Each student explores a practice they could see themselves starting, whether full-time or alongside other work. The delivery is a presentation given to a panel at the end of the semester and submitted as a PDF, accompanied by a short reflection note.