By far, the best place to train people for practice is in practice (Lawson & Dorst, 2009). The depth and nuance of knowledge imparted by practice-based learning are significant. However, even under ideal conditions, aspects central to the professional design field cannot be replicated in formalised design education. This chapter embarks on an in-depth examination of design education paradigms in the Netherlands, scrutinising the nuanced interplay between theory and practice. The discussion begins within the historical backdrop of art and crafts education, tracing its origins from the guild system’s decline to the contemporary challenges faced by creative vocational schools, art academies, and universities. A thorough exploration of educational differences, contextual separations, and the historical evolution of design disciplines sets the stage. The focus narrows onto Transition Atelier The Last Makers, a Living Lab embodying a real-world environment for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative experimentation. As the chapter proceeds, it seeks to unravel the complex relationship between educational levels, bridge gaps in knowledge transfer, and challenge existing paradigms in design education.@en

This article discusses the development of a framework within five primary cases that explore collaborations with local municipalities, corporations, organizations, various stakeholders, and educational institutions. It reviews the progression of speculation, from a pragmatic response to immediate educational demands modeling critical and experimental approaches from professional practice, toward an approach to cognitive apprenticeship (CA) (Collins et al., 1987), foregrounding digital and material discourse as a post-disciplinary externalization of cognition within situated practice (Brown et al., 1989). Speculation is developed as an operative tool or a structured operation within the design process, linking critical research components to material realities and potential futures. This approach reflects a decentralization or distribution of developmental influence and responsibility from a relatively isolated or compartmentalized linear system with strong biases toward internal, centralized knowledge to a network directly engaged with research perspectives, sociotechnical systems, situated knowledges, and practices in everyday life. Through CA techniques, including distributed scaffolding (Puntambekar, 1997), and activity sequencing (Tharp, 1993; Dennen, 2000), an iterative approach to ethnomethodological variation influenced foundational metacognitive development exemplified by higher-level progression of learning trajectories in the case studies, both inside and outside of ‘the school,’ addressing broad variation in participant competencies and substantial participant groups (up to 460). We argue that at the core of this utility is the flexibility to embrace complexity and address ongoing change while still situating foundational themes and competencies (including critical approaches to knowledge sources, participatory processes, and projected futures) as necessary components in a logical, ethical, understandable, and exploratory framework.@en

Typographic anthropologists Ryan Pescatore Frisk and Catelijne van Middelkoop founded Strange Attractors Design whilecompleting their MFAs at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Fascinated by subcultural type and related treatments, Ryan currently attends the Post Graduate Type/Media program at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, The Netherlands, while Catelijne occupies herself pleading that ornament should not be considered criminal.@en