This seminar will track the process of taking a product from an idea all the way to market. It will examine the importance of innovation, concepts of feasibility, designing, prototyping, bringing in investors, marketing and other aspects of entrepreneurship. This course will also examine the history and theory of ideas and concepts which influenced architecture and surrounding disciplines and examine the cultural impact of these influential ideas, products, inventions, etc. in our communities. The course will end with a look at technology and innovation in this field, with this idea of predicting what this field will look like in the near future.

The first two workshops will lay down the foundation for the study of design, from architecture to graphic design to design at the level of products or furnishings. Students will focus on the fundamentals of design (color theory, form, principles of composition, studies of materiality, and visual analysis), moving from 2D to 2.5D design to 3D design. Essential design theories and ideas, like figure/ground relationships, scale, field conditions, etc. will be taught along the way, along with the historical and social movements from which these ideas and theories were derived. Particular focus will be on the scale of the human body and how it informs, interferes or interacts with furniture, goods and furnishing for the interior or the exterior, for the workplace or the home. The intent is to give students a background level of knowledge of how to design in all the scales, materials, and methods they will be asked to design throughout this course of study.

Architectural scale ranges from small to large and can be debatable, but most would agree that it is defined by human occupation. In many ways, the inhabitation of the human body and the interaction of parts of the body that distinctly separate it from other portable consumer products. At the smallest scale, these elements are furniture-like, conforming to the body, while the largest can be complete dwellings or pre-fab structures. This course interrogates the smallest unit albeit a piece of furniture, playground piece or building element. How that same unit connects to the adjacent space, program, function, economics and culture that surrounds it in what we call context plays an important role in the validity of this project.

Students will look at diverse precedents and will be encouraged to design responsibly for planet wellness, human wellness and equity.

Does not require D-Clearance.

Registration restriction: Not open to students with Freshman/Sophomore standing.

This seminar examines light, color and the character of material as a collection of medium for making worlds. Through linking various arts and design disciplines as a departure and overview for the course subject, Arch 423 exposes students to a spectrum of approaches in theory and application, drawing influences from nature, technology, and the vernacular. Class exercises aim to develop a number of visual concerns across object-oriented analysis to atmospheric and environmental construction. In the course of employing digital and analogue techniques, students will synthesize a repertoire of advanced graphic experiments for weekly progress and learning.