Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
Swaying between art and seduction
Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
Where the earth screams in horror
08/01/2009 - Issue 30
The science of decoration
by Dima Abdulhaq
“We spotted that most of those who work in interior design in Syria are intruders on the field,” May al-Assar, CEO of Stad. “They hadn’t really got a proper education which is specialized in interior design, they are mostly non specialists who depend mainly on their work experience.” That is when the decision was made to create the Stad Center (al-Monfared) for learning and development, a Syrian pioneer in the field of interior design, with plans to get into the field of garden design.
According to Assar, the center provides its courses in affiliation with Rhodec International UK, one of the most trusted and universally recognized centers for interior design for its specialized and comprehensive courses. Rhodec programs have been prepared very carefully and on a variety of academic levels to meet the educational needs of the growing number of people interested in studying interior design. “Civil engineers, architectures, fine art students, those who work in the furnishing and decoration fields, and even women who aspire to have distinguished scientific achievement and who’d like to keep pace with the rapid cultural changes; all of those can be students at the Stad Center,” says Assar.
Courses at Stad Center range from the “Rhodec Diploma,” a comprehensive three-year course, and a one-year course in interior design called the “Associate Diploma,” which provides the student with basic principles of interior design and qualifies them to give artistic consultancy. These two courses are taught along side with other English and computer courses such as Auto CAD (2D & 3D), Adobe Photoshop, 3D MAX, V-Ray, Premier, Sketch Up and ICDL. “The target of Stad Center is to meet the needs of those interested in interior design and to provide them with a scientific and practical curriculum: the principles of interior design, the theory of colors, the history of interior design, materials of construction and construction of the interiors,” says Assar. “Samples to measure rooms and to survey quantity, surfaces and elevations, in addition to furniture and lighting are also provided.”
Students, whose progress is followed from their registration at the center to their graduation, automatically get a registration number in the UK, which allows them to enter the Rhodec site and connect with the Rhodec students all over the world. All the grading, assessments, tests and work are kept under the supervision of Rhodec International. Unlike private universities, students at Stad get condensed attention and support from their teachers due to the small number of students within the class. “The Rhodec Diploma also enables students with high grades to pursue their studies at London Metropolitan University, transferring their professional diploma into an academic one and to get a bachelor’s after one year of distance learning,” explains Assar.
The affiliation with Rhodec International means Stad Center is under their constant supervision, and has sensitive criteria in choosing teachers. The recruiting approval of any staff member comes from Rhodec depending on the teacher’s competence, practical experience and English proficiency. Most of the teachers at Stad are PhD or master’s degree holders and are put under continual evaluation from the students. Teachers at Stad-center work on letting their students feel the materials they are studying by taking them in field trips, and site visits to workshops that are under constructions.
“Our main target is to raise the level of competence of local cadres and provide an opportunity for students to obtain the level of excellence to contribute to the rapid progress of Syria, by providing them with the best programs and training in various specializations,” says Assar.
