Bas van Beek, head of the Rietveld Academy Designlab department, teacher and practicing product designer is in almost all interviews and other bio’s described as the bad boy of design in the Netherlands. Not only this nickname as well as the fact that most critics writing about him seem to agree on his position in the field made me interested in Bas van Beek as a person, as a teacher and head of designLAB and most of all as an independent design professional at Archiploitation.
Van Beek's "Royal Rip-Off's"
Van Beek started studying interior-architecture in 1993, studied interior design in 1997, but never finished these studies. Simultaneously he studied interior architecture at the Willem de Kooning Academy from which he graduated in 1998. His final thesis, about a 3D scan of his own faeces as a critic on computer generated architecture, repeatedly sets the tone for most of the critics writing about him. During his studies he did 2 brief internships in Architecture offices. After his graduation Van Beek started his career as an independent design practitioner.
Back then, the Dutch government was supporting starting artists and designers with start-up grands. Putting Van Beek in a position in which he could start to examine what was going on in Dutch Design at that time without direct pressure to design to survive.