Thesis Highlights

Prototyping Solutions

image of a student's bench

This upper-level course draws upon foundational design skills from studio prerequisites to explore form-making through physical prototypes. Students will first analyze an archetype (e.g, stool, table, sawhorse), then will work to develop concepts, uses, and formal qualities to be tested on their own design. The iterative process will include material studies, physical and digital model-making, and constructed fabrication drawings that inform individual projects at full scale. Understanding design as inseparable from making is central to this course. The final builds are simultaneously a studied work and an object for refinement. 

Prototyping Solutions is an introduction to various topics in design and instruction in navigating from ideation through execution. The class discusses terms and examines a range of approaches and production. 3 Core Projects anchors the class and divides the semester accordingly. 

Working with material is a critical component of this course and students pursue an agenda that views design as making. A "Portmanteau" serves as a object that students consider and interpret through making, in 3 different ways. Designs will be made that treat the object as Structure to establish, a site to erase and mend, and as an object to program with function.   

WORK

exploded axon of a student's bench
image of a student's chair
exploded axon of a student's chair
image of a student's design build, table and bench
exploded axon of a student's table/ bench
a student's reclining seat
old iterations of a student's reclining bench
a student's table
exploded axon of a student's table
a student's circular seat
diagram of a student's seat

FACULTY

Nick Perrin, Visiting Assistant Professor of Design