The year has flown by! The students are already back into the swing of things after a nice 2-week break; two weeks in which the BHC staff spent finalising the marks for the assessments completed by the students in the first term, as well as planning for the new term. We thought we would take a moment to share some of the amazing work that the students have produced this year to date.

After the initial theory overload for the new 1^st year design students, involving colour theory, principles and elements of design and all that goes with that, they ended off the first term with designing their first interior – The Living Capsule. Part of the process was to create a 3D “journal” conceptual model exploring ergonomics and space planning. From there they moved on to drawing up the space.

We are so proud of the progress they have made in 8 short weeks. The second term will see them putting these skills into practice again as well as introducing perspective drawing and rendering skills into the mix.

The decorating students started off the year by collaborating with the 2^nd Years on a holiday apartment solution for a client in the Cape Town CBD. The design students were responsible for the layout and visualization of the space, while the decorating students put together sample boards to accompany the designs. Following this project, they moved onto surveying, planning and creating a studio apartment in Rondebosch. It was their first exercise in drafting as well as rendering.

The 2^nd years spent the full first term working on actual client briefs. The 1^st brief, as mentioned above, was a group project on which they collaborated with the decorating students, while the second one was a showroom for Cannata and Sons, a leading Marble, Granite and Engineered Stone supplier in Cape Town. For this project, they worked individually and it was great to see the results.

The 3^rd years have also been busy working on a group project for a client – they designed and presented concepts for a car showroom for an advertising executive in Cape Town. They were able to go visit the existing space, see the cars and meet with the client.

We are only 1 term into the year already and we are so proud of the work that all our students have produced. We look forward to seeing what else they have up their sleeves!

After a long and restful December holiday, BHC is back in full swing. The 1^st of February marked the first day of the new academic year as well as the first day for all our new 1^st Year Design and Decorating Students.

It has become a bit of a tradition at BHC for the new students to ease their way into college by designing and making storage boxes for the children at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital as part of BHC’s Social Awareness drive. This year, the Design and Décor students worked in groups, creating themes to work around and the outcome was really special. We are so looking forward to dropping them off at the hospital.

Another tradition at the college is the 2^nd year class hosting an orientation party for the new students at the end of their first week. The new students did an awesome job of rising to the challenges that the 2^nd Years put them too; none of them seemed too embarrassed!

The party is also an opportunity for the rest of the college to get to know the new students as well as an opportunity for all the students to catch up, mingle and have a laugh.

Now that Orientation Week is over and the students are in the swing of things, we are incredibly excited to see what the amazing bunch of BHC students will produce this year.

Last week Thursday, we officially wrapped up the academic year with our 2015 graduation, held, for the first time, at our Salt River Road campus. We are extremely proud to announce that we had 17 Diploma of Interior Design students and 12 Higher Certificate in Interior Decorating students graduating this year.

After all the hard work that the students have put into their studies over the past few years, especially leading up to their final portfolio hand-in, it was an emotional moment for them. We were lucky to have Adri van Zyl and Vincent Clery from Atelier as our guests of honour, who delivered an inspirational and insightful talk for the graduates on entering the real world of design.

As per tradition, we hosted an Industry Evening later that same day. Each year we host this event at which we exhibit the students’ final portfolios of work, giving the industry an opportunity to look for potential employees. It also gives the students an opportunity to meet, mingle and network with past graduates, suppliers and other designers. And of course it also gives us an opportunity to have a party!

Both events were a success and the day was really the perfect to wrap up what has been a jam-packed year of rebranding, high quality work and victory.

To all our graduates – congratulations on your amazing achievement and we wish you all the best for your next adventure into the fun, thrilling, slightly scary, but mostly incredible world of interiors.

Aimeé’s entry

Last night Caesarstone hosted its 2015 Student Designer Awards in Sandton. BHC is very proud to announce that not only did we have 2 finalists in the top 9, we also took home the top prize. Congratulations to Kyla-Val Azar, for being a top 9 finalist and to Aimeé de Villiers for being named the winner of this years’ competition.

Kyla-Val, Donna and Aimeé

We are incredible proud of both of our young ladies for all the effort they put into their entries. They are both truly inspiring and we certainly hope this achievement inspires our future 3^rd years students.

Aimeé and her lecturer, Donna,  are looking forward to their international design trip in 2016.

Kyla-Val’s entry

Thank you to Caesarstone for running this competition – we certainly look forward to entering it next year.