Amsterdam: our collective year 2 trip!

Year 2 students from across all courses had the opportunity to head to Amsterdam as part of an educational study visit in spring 2019. BA (Hons) Interior Design student Leah Walker shares her journal with highlights from the week.

I think it’s every students dream to have a planned educational visit to Amsterdam and this trip did not disappoint. It was my second time visiting the city. Amsterdam, I’m sure you’re aware, is a crazy and exciting place but by going on this trip as a student with the rest of my course cohort I got to experience a very different side of this amazing city.

Once we arrived, we were all eager to get out into Amsterdam and start enjoying ourselves. Our free time on this trip was spent visiting as many quirky restaurants and attractions as possible.

We explored A LOT, wandering for hours trying to fit everything in, some even exploring by water on a sunset canal tour on our last day. The 100 metre high swing at the A ’dam Lookout was definitely a highlight of mine (perhaps not a highlight of some of my height fearing friends however…).

Ben (our Course Leader) also did an amazing job at finding some gems for both our course and BA (Hons) Architecture to visit. The Droog Hotel, our first stop, was an amazing hotel with a museum alongside that displays amazing artworks, furniture and installations such as the ‘do hit chair’ by Marjin van de Poll and the chest of draws ‘you can’t lay down your memories’ by Tejo Remi.

We also visited the EYE film Museum where we had access to the amazing exhibitions on offer such as their permanent collection and the ‘Tale of hidden histories’ exhibition they currently have on. We also received an architectural tour around the amazing interior and exterior. This building is Iconic in the modern architecture of Amsterdam and it was amazing to see it from a very different view from what I had before.

My personal favourite of the trip was The MOCO Museum of modern and contemporary art which is currently displaying a private collection of Banksy works. I have been a huge fan of Banksy for a very long time and I can’t explain how excited I was walking around some of his iconic pieces, I was like a kid in a sweet shop.

Pieces from Dismaland and his famous girl with the balloon were on display with many others and it was just amazing to see it all in person. I would highly recommend this exhibition to anyone who is visiting Amsterdam in the next few months.

The trip exceeding all our expectations and I can guarantee we all wish we were back there already.  I have fallen in love with Amsterdam all over again.

BA Interior Design