Overview of design as the giving of form, order, and interactivity to the objects that define our daily life. Follows the path from project to interactive product. Covers the overall design process, preparing students for work in a hands-on studio learning environment. Emphasizes design development and constraints. Topics include the analysis of objects; interaction design and user experience; design methodologies, current dialogues in design; economies of scale vs. means; and the role of technology in design. Provides a foundation in prototyping skills such as carpentry, casting, digital fabrication, electronics, and coding.

Provides instruction in architectural design and project development within design constraints including architectural program and site. Students engage the design process through various 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional media. Working directly with representational and model making techniques, students gain experience in the conceptual, formal, spatial and material aspects of architecture. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided.

Introduces fundamental design principles as a way to demystify design and provide a basic introduction to all aspects of the process. Stimulates creativity, abstract thinking, representation, iteration, and design development. Equips students with skills to have more effective communication with designers, and develops their ability to apply the foundations of design to any discipline.

“Architecture &” is a course framework that situates architecture (and cities) relative to a shifting subject that ranges from material, light, use, limits, time, memory, narrative, posthumanism, thresholds, etc.

This course is an exploration of the later stages of architectural design that occurs in architectural detailing and construction mock-ups. To initiate this course, students will select a building threshold from a project that they have previously designed and use it as a basis to produce 5-10 new threshold variations. The threshold variations will be a detailed response and study of select architectural precedents. For the final project, students will select one threshold design to build a physical model at full (or half) scale.

This course offers students the opportunity to explore the design potential passages, openings and closures. Choosing and isolating the threshold allows for an in-depth study of the passage between interiors, and exteriors, and the space in between. Each threshold is on the verge of; as illustrated in Marcel Duchamp’s door 11 rue Larrey from 1927, it is both an opening to and closure of and holds the space between two conditions.

Students will design and detail openings in response to atmospheres and spaces and inhabitants. Students will also explore multiple design options as each design will be approached through a different tectonic lens. Students will not redesign the entire building—only the threshold. Since the threshold is from a design that each student gave much consideration previously, each speculation on the threshold design hints toward alternative design approaches and potentials for building design.

The approach to tectonic studies is informed by a range of precedents from literature, mathematics, art, music and architecture. In art and music, instructional compositions informed by repetition, variation, and singularity (uniqueness) from the chance compositions of John Cage to the wall drawings of Sol Le Witt. Other models for this exploration are the books Elements of Style by Raymond Queneau and 99 Variations on a Proof by Philip Ording, two works that begin with a simple premise that is reinvented one hundredfold by a new set of principles, techniques, contexts, and histories.

Queneau the cofounder of OuLiPo (workshop of potential literature) begins with a narrative, while Ording begins with a theorem, yet each uses the same method to generate new perspectives of the original through an exploration of style. The OuLiPo group applied constraints and mathematical rules to conceive of and structure narratives. Architectural precedents will be drawn from editions of GA Detail, Global Architecture, El Croquis, and when possible, detailed vernacular, traditional African, Islamic, Japanese, and European examples. 
 

Master/Piece wordshop will study 6 buildings that are considered seminal in contemporary architecture, built by architects that remain active in practice. We will discuss why those works are key and the chain of reactions and trends that detonate in architecture culture, their traces and impact in peers and in other projects. We will focus deep in the conceptual to constructive scales and the masters will join the class to culminate the analysis and conversation.

How to re-design garbage into a living creature? The workshop introduces a workflow combining hands-on artwork-making and digitalization tools like 3D-scan and AI-generated rigged models.
     
This is a three-day workshop from Jan 10 to 12 (Wed to Fri):

• Day one: Collect or bring the trash you want or unwanted. A tutorial on the 3D-scan tool will be provided.
• Day two: Paper mache techniques. Turn trash into mesh by hand and by scanning.
• Day three: Animate your paper mache with generative AI!

Cities, industries, & systems are material mines that have formed over centuries. As these artificial mines are built, voids they form, out of sight, grow. In a time when resourcefulness is the new imperative, the realm of design beckons a shift from a boundless creative aspiration towards an appreciation of scavenged, processed, & off-cut materials, allowing them to shape imaginative pursuits.

For OFFCUT/CUTOFF, we will travel to Bahrain and immerse ourselves in an environment of industrial production. We will study, analyze, and map Awal Group’s operations, material sources and waste streams. Offcuts from the manufacturing of ducts and HVAC systems will form a palette of materials that we will upcycle through a series of fabricated design solutions. Techniques used will include but not be limited to rolling, bending, casting, punching, and inflating. The resulting work will be showcased at the House of Heritage along the Pearling Path in Muharraq. 

During our time on the island, we will be engaging with local metal smelters and design studios, including bahraini-danish, Civil Architecture and Studio Anne Holtrop.

Limited Seats, please submit an application by midnight Dec 10 here: https://tinyurl.com/offcutbh 

*open to graduate students only, cross-registration available.

Note: The first meeting of this class is on Monday, February 12

Building towards a campus-wide climate corps, this workshop will host students who want to engage in campus and community-based climate projects. Students from across MIT will come together to develop ideas and design prototypes that respond to climate and climate justice imperatives, working with campus and community-based class collaborators. The workshop is part of the multi-year Civilian Climate Corps Initiative (MCCCI), conceived as a pilot for an annual course. Students will have the opportunity to engage in multi-faceted design of “climate pilots” at the intersection of climate, community and careers, learn from experts engaged in these facets of design on our campus and in the local communities of Cambridge and Boston, and from each other through reflection and teamwork. The project will respond to three major themes of farms, heat risk, and green careers. Students will be able to choose the “climate pilot” they would like to work on. Students with their own projects that fit the criteria may email the professors.  The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students from across the Institute. Key collaborators will include MITCCCI partners PowerCorps Boston; Eastie Farm, and the MIT Office of Sustainability (MITOS); and other campus and community partners. 

Students have the option to take the course for 3 or 9 units. In-class time will be devoted to guest lectures and group work. Out of class, students taking the course for 9 units will conduct weekly reflections, research, and work with each other, with site visits to get to know the organizations and sites. Students taking the class for 3 credits will conduct weekly reflections and make targeted contributions to team projects.