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A new era is beginning that builds and extends the impact of digitization in unanticipated ways
This graduate elective seminar will be conducted in English and combines lectures with readings, class discussions, and a three-phased comprehensive assignment on the subject of smart, interactive, and innovative design, focusing on furniture design, product design, and interior design. The seminar offers a introduction into the subject area of Smart and Interactive Design tethered to digital design and fabrication tools . . . fueling today’s 4th Industrial Revolution.
Course content will parallel and support the phased project assignments, periodic reviews, and culminate in a final, collective presentation of smart and interactive furniture/ product/ interior projects presented to faculty and design professionals at the end of the semester.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Lectures, class discussions, and a three-phased assignment all work together. The goal of the course is to help students develop their understanding of smart, innovative, and interactive design, while at the same time, broaden their knowledge in areas of furniture, product, and interior design.
The overall goal of this course is to consider the question: What constitutes smart, interactive, and innovative design? A significant portion of the course delivers a comprehensive body of knowledge on how things are made, how things are used, how design performs - focusing on materials, furniture, product and interior design. In the course, we will begin by looking at three previous industrial revolutions and concentrate on the current, 4th Industrial Revolution.
Students attending this course will learn about:
international furniture, product, and interior designers
furniture and product typologies and design taxonomies
anthropometries and ergonomic theories related to seating, posture, use, and the human body
perspective into companies that produce smart and interactive furniture, product, and interiors
background information on selected regional & cultural geographies from which innovative design ideas and technologies emanate
global professional practices, markets, and promotional strategies
smart materials and innovative fabrication technologies
how the disciplines of architecture, interior design, industrial design, and fine art, contribute to design and fabricate innovative furniture design
national / international venues for furniture & product design, including journals, tradeshows & exhibits.
innovative custom cabinetry
interactive built-in / casework
smart material specification
rapid prototyping, CNC milling, robotics, smart-wraps, and other digital innovation / technologies
EXPECTATIONS
Students are responsible for all the readings, class discussions, attendance, and one three-part project for evaluation in this course. The primary project will involve documentation and analysis of smart and interactive designs and then result in each student designing a working-prototype of a furniture / product / interior millwork project that explores and applies smart and interactive design ideas. The comprehensive project involves developing drawings and text to document, analyze, and synthesize a furniture / product or interior millwork project of choice.
Overview of the 3-part Comprehensive Assignment
Regarding the choice of what type of furniture, product, or interior millwork component to document, analyze, and synthesize through the three assignments, students may choose a precedent based upon human use & interaction, smart materials and design ideas, and innovative design ideas. The challenge is for students to consider a broad range of human use and performance characteristics while at the same time, focusing on smart, interactive, and innovative aspects.
OUTLINE AND FORMAT FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE 3-PART ASSIGNMENT
After initial exposure to a broad range of innovative projects, each student will select a primary project to document, analyze, and “re-design”. Once the project priority has been determined, students will begin working on the comprehensive project - first by documenting the product (assignment #1) – then by analyzing it (assignment #2), and then, by re-designing it into something new (furniture, product, or interior millwork (assignment #3).
Collectively, the first phase (documentation phase) will introduce students to core-content areas of smart and interactive furniture / product / and millwork design and enable collective review of the selected projects. Students will learn how to specify and delineate materials and details related to their precedent-study project. In the process of documenting a product of choice, students will gain a substantial level of knowledge about the product. In the second phase of the comprehensive project (the analysis phase), students will learn how well the product performs, about human use, ergonomics, and the technologies used to fabricate the piece.
Following the initial efforts to document and analyze a product of choice, students will consider how to “improve” a particular aspect of the selected piece. Primary use, dimensions, material decisions, etc., can all be transformed in the third phase of the comprehensive project, encouraging each student to consider altering any dimension of the project in order to make the selected product more “Smart”, more “Innovative”, more “Interactive”.
Students will develop and complete finely delineated scaled drawings, indicating material / color and visible surfaces (and optional full-size or scaled model studies) for presentation. Each student must illustrate their product being used and in a spatial context. By rendering the revised product in use and in spatial context, students shall create a social and environmental context for the work (use, time, and place) best suited for the revised piece - presenting smart and interactive design values in an "ideal setting" and in use.
Assignment #1:
You are to begin by documenting a smart and interactive product of your choice, considering smart and interactive design ideas as the focus of your selection. After two weeks of lectures and discussions, students will carefully begin to document a product (via drawing) and develop brief text description, working independently. Making a set of drawings will help students consider form, scale, size, surface, order, and material . . . the “visible” characteristics of product design. This exercise will help students understand the formal and measurable aspects of their selected product. Scale and format of the drawings will be determined in seminar. All sheets shall be A3.
Assignment #2:
The second assignment involves analysis. Analysis can make visible some of the invisible conditions of the product through drawing, diagramming, and text useful to evaluate use, wear, performance, effectiveness and taking into consideration; fabrication, durability, human use, maintenance, context, marketability, etc. In this phase, students will consider many aspects that are not visible characteristics of the product.
Assignment #3:
This assignment is designed to guide redesign efforts (synthesis) in transforming the documented and analyzed product by retooling it into a more Smart, more Innovative, more Interactive product. In this phase, you will explore, resolve, and present the transformed product side-by-side to the original documented product - and in the process, discover subtle or obvious characteristics of Smart and Interactive design.
FORMAT FOR ASSIGNMENT #3
5 sheets minimum with each sheet plotted at A3 size (oriented vertically).
Sheet 1 will be your title page, centered approx. 5cm from the top of the page, include the following:
Title of the furniture design / product / millwork design. Centered approx. 2cm from the bottom of the page,
include your name, program, school affiliation, and date.
Between this information (centered on the page), include a high quality image of the furniture / product / interior design. The image can be a drawing, a sketch, or photograph (remember the vertical format remains for all sheets).
Sheet 2 include at the upper left margin the following information:
Title of furniture / product / interior project
Name of designer (dates, address if known)
Date of production / fabrication
In the upper right header of the text page, include a small reference image of the furniture design - this may be a sketch or photograph (not to exceed 5cm x 5cm).
Using either twelve or fourteen-point font, use the remainder of the entire page to write your text in three concise and well-written paragraphs.
The first paragraph shall describe the general background description, setting the context, and functional information of the design. It shall highlight the intended purposes, intended user group and general background information of interest, ranging from societal to cultural considerations.
The second paragraph shall document everything measurable and technical about the product in a concise manner. You should include its weight, material(s), finish, production process of its making, dimensional information, cost, and formal description. Students should be precise in terms of material explanation and fabrication process.
The third paragraph is the opportunity to reflect upon the design by offering constructive criticism. You are encouraged to write a brief, but salient design critique based upon your perception of some pros and cons of the design. Focus on the values of Smart, Interactive, and Innovative aspects.
On the remaining A3 sheets, do not include title or product icons. Include only the drafted drawings, text and dimensions as required.
Sheet 3 shall include measured drawings in plan, elevation, and section. Original drawings ought to be drawn using a CAD program and printed at a metric scale close to 1:4 scale. You may use A3 format or use any number of A3 sheets (but keep all sheets A3 and vertically oriented).
Sheet 4, one exploded axonometric - showing all SIGNIFICANT components of the furniture / product / interior. The angle and view of the drawing is up to you. The exploded axonometric should be carefully rendered and accurate in dimension and appropriately sized to fit the format. This shall be a computer generated plot using Sketch-up, AutoCad, Rhino, or REVIT, etc. software programs.
Sheet 5 – One rendered image showing the furniture / product / interior component in use and in context.
This sheet becomes the fifth and final sheet for both assignment #1 and assignment #3. You are to produce a single high-quality image showing the product in use and in context. The idea is to create a single image that communicates the spatial context, use, purpose, and design qualities of the piece in one image.
Orientation of the sheets shall be formatted vertically, A3 in order to integrate seamlessly within assignments #1-3.
Final Presentation:
Final submission of all work for Assignment #1 and Assignment #3 shall be on a minimum of (5) A3 colored photocopies (each assignment) – all oriented vertically. Assignment 2 may be a few as 3 sheets or as many as 5 sheets.
Criteria for Grading: for each of the Assignments #1-#2, #3:
Overall completeness and format of drawings: 50%
Smartness, Interactivity, Innovation incorporated about the product or transformed piece: 25%
Completeness of text and specifications: 25%
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