Provides an introduction to visual communication, emphasizing the development of a visual and verbal vocabulary through the lens of typography. Presents the fundamentals of shape, composition, visual hierarchy, word/image relationships, and type systems as building blocks for communicating with clarity, emotion, and meaning. Students develop their ability to analyze, discuss, and critique both their work and the work of the designed world, with an emphasis on type as a visual and conceptual medium.

Also open to undergraduates.

This design studio and seminar is about the creative opportunities that emerge in copying, reproducing, and translating content—specifically in the slipped and botched, the illicit and bootlegged, and the overly literal and "bad" translations. Using theoretical frameworks in linguistic translation and media theory, we will examine the ways in which these “bad” translations can serve as both a prompt and a method for creative inquiry.

We will start first by examining the histories of typographic printing and the technological precedents for fixing forms of language. Students will work with and expand on various “translation” machines, such as the printing press, and consider the various ways through which we copy, reproduce, and translate texts and images. Students can expect to test these methods, build their own fonts, and learn how to bind their own books. These will be supplemented by readings, guest lectures, and site visits. By the end of the term, each student will have developed a project and accompanying printed and bound publication, grounded in a specific translation topic of their choosing.

Examines the complex development of cities through history by tracing a diachronic accumulation of forms and spaces in specific cities, and showing how significant ideas were made manifest across distinct geographies and cultures. Emphasizes how economic, spiritual, political, geographic and technological forces have simultaneously shaped and, in turn, been influenced by the city.

Info session: October date TBD
Applications: Link and deadline TBD

15 units Spring Workshop + 6 units IAP  (total: 21 units); Required to do IAP travel to New Orleans from January 20-30, 2027.

Introduces a range of practical approaches involved in evaluating and planning sites within the context of natural and cultural systems. Develops the knowledge and skills to analyze and plan a site for development through exercises and an urban design project. Topics include land inventory, urban form, spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, off-site impacts, and landscape strategies.

Info session: October date TBD
Applications due: Wed, Nov. 19 (link TBD)
Participating students notified: Wed, Nov. 26

15 units Spring Workshop + 6 units IAP  (total: 21 units); Required to do IAP travel to New Orleans from January 20-30, 2027.

Introduces a range of practical approaches involved in evaluating and planning sites within the context of natural and cultural systems. Develops the knowledge and skills to analyze and plan a site for development through exercises and an urban design project. Topics include land inventory, urban form, spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, off-site impacts, and landscape strategies.

Focuses on the synthesis of urban, mixed-use real estate projects, including the integration of physical design and programming with finance and marketing. Interdisciplinary student teams analyze how to maximize value across multiple dimensions in the process of preparing professional development proposals for sites in US cities and internationally. Reviews emerging real estate products and innovative developments to provide a foundation for studio work. Two major projects are interspersed with lectures and field trips. Integrates skills and knowledge in the MSRED program; also open to other students interested in real estate development by permission of the instructors.

Examines ways that urban design contributes to distribution of political power and resources in cities. Investigates the nature of relations between built form and political purposes through close study of public and private sector design commissions and planning processes that have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as more tacit examples. Lectures and discussions focus on cases from both developed and developing countries.

Examines the evolving structure of cities and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be designed and developed. Surveys the ideas of a wide range of people who have addressed urban problems. Stresses the connection between values and design. Demonstrates how physical, social, political and economic forces interact to shape and reshape cities over time. Introduces links between urban design and urban science.

Students continue to work in their venture teams to advance innovative ideas, products, and services oriented to design, planning, and the human environment. Presented in a workshop format with supplementary lectures. Teams are matched with external mentors for additional support in business and product development. At the end of the term, teams pitch their ventures to an audience from across the school and MIT, investors, industry, and cities.