The teaching is the conclusive moment of the study course, systematizing and verifying the knowledge acquired, applying it through the typical methods of a tender, developing an overall project in the spatial design ambit.

Students:
- are familiar with and understand the processes, methods and instruments required for interpreting in a critical manner the design themes in the widest context of cultural, social and technological transformation;
- know how to elaborate a design, with particular attention on the functional, typological, structural and technical aspects.
- operate and communicate the design choices made independently and in a team, developing an aptitude for negotiation, team building, leadership and conflict management

Tradition and Modernity +

A fundamental studio theme will be the investigation of the interplay and continuity (or fracture) amongst tradition, history, heritage, modernity, transformation, innovation, and change. There will be examinations and explorations that will link the past, present and future to the contemporary world and the contemporary sense of things, with an explicit awareness and connection to the past as well. A progressive and open sense of heritage and history, fused with modernity and contemporary conditions, will seek to articulate a comprehensive or simultaneous sense of design, innovation, and “designed interventions” in a historical / existing context. The sense of continuity and modernity also strives for a comprehensive state of continued relevance and sustainability – including sustainability in social, cultural, economic and ecological aspects. This theme points to the need and desire for relevance - and the important of continued relevance (along with recognition and respect) of the past, present and future.

The island of Murano is not what it used to be. For centuries this dot of land 2km from Venice was the centre of the global glass industry. Its densely packed furnaces churned out chandeliers, vases, goblets and gewgaws, from colourful clowns and twirling dancers to prancing horses and pouting fish. As recently as the 1970s, there were more than 800 furnaces doing a brisk trade on the island.

But times have changed. An influx of cheaper glass… put many Venetian companies out of business. And many consumers no longer wanted the elaborately shaped, lurid pieces that many Murano blowers specialised in. Today there are fewer than 80 furnaces left, and many of the island’s old industrial buildings wear for-sale signs.

But…

Necessity, though, is the mother of invention. “Murano seemed to be in terminal decline,” says David Landau, a Swiss collector who lives in Venice, where he founded Le Stanze del Vetro, a museum dedicated to Venetian glass on San Giorgio Maggiore, another of Venice’s islands. “But Murano people have realised that if they close themselves off, it’s not going to work. There has been a slow but inexorable reopening of Murano to the world.”

+

This year Venice will host its third Glass Week, a jamboree of exhibitions and events organised by David Landau, among others. “What is unique to Murano is the richness of its tradition, and the ability of its glassblowers to command almost any technique,” Landau says. “The spirit of experimentation that had gone astray ten years ago seems to have come back.”

Simon Willis, The Designers Putting Murano Back On The Map, 2019; excerpts from 1843magazine.com (The Economist is the parent company)

The intersections, challenges and opportunities offered under the conceptual / thematic umbrella of Tradition and Modernity are plentiful and provocative, and provide a rich educational and productive arena for research and design. Additional themes / topics of the studio include memory, meaning, experience, storytelling (narration), time, and ritual. The student groups will work with scalar issues, and hence will have the opportunity to work at different scales. The specific focus of the studio will be on the future of Murano, Italy and specifically its long-standing position with glass and glass making. While this falls within the general condition of towns (in and beyond Italy) currently facing declines in populations, economic activity and overall sustainability, the particular historical and current conditions in Murano and with the artisan glass factories are also specific and particular. Historical and present conditions and factors will be researched and explored, and an overall understanding will help lead to particular proposals to stabilize and reverse the declining trends. This work will be done at various scales and in various ways, including master planning at the urban scale and specific developed interventions at medium and smaller scales. This is a semester long project and will be done in phases that will sequentially facilitate the research and design work. The students will work in, and collaborate and compete as, groups. A primary collaborator and sponsor will be WonderGlass, other collaborating partners and possible sponsor – as well as further details and developments – will be announced later.

“Glass is unique and magical in a multitude of ways. It is the only material that is natural, flexible, you can see through it and there is a strict unbreakable relationship with light and it exists for light to both reflect and go through it.
Innovation is about the process of translating an idea into a good or service that creates value. To be called as such an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and/or satisfy a need. Innovation is synonymous with risk-taking and organisations that create revolutionary products.
In this broad sense, we are marrying the skills of the artisan glass makers of Venice, with so many years of history, of experience, with contemporary designers and architects to produce what is essentially a unique, bespoke collection. We want to make an environment unique through the sense of glass. It transcends and creates, an environment that can be both mystic and spiritual.”
Christian Mussati, WonderGlass CEO and co-founder.

The “contest/competition” aspect of this “Contest Studio” per the new curriculum of the graduate degree program is explicit and fully intertwined within the studio. At both the general and specific sense and expectations of the studio, there will be an explicit requirement that stresses strong and articulate visual communication. The focus on visual communication will be developed over the semester, and will culminate in a “mute review” at the end of the semester. The requirement for the work to speak for itself, will proceed hand in hand with the stress of short, precise verbalization of the design work that will be reduced over the semester to its elimination for the last review. Therefore the design intentions and the design work must ultimately (and again over time during the semester) be clear and articulate… and must be communicated visually through drawings, models, diagrams, images, key words, key images, renderings, text, titles, graphs, labels, etc. In most competitions, the author (designer, architect, artist, etc.) is usually not present for the review, deliberations and decisions by the jury. Therefore the work must speak fully for itself, since the author is not present and not able to present verbally. The structure of the studio is in fact designed in four parts, with the last part focusing purely on the “competition” presentation (verbally mute) and possible exhibition (also mute). A composed jury will determine the highest ranked work for this final phase of the studio.

Readings, lectures, in-situ visits, case studies, prototyping, and iterative design work will be combined with photography, video, animation, sketching, diagramming, writing, drawing and modeling. “Modeling” will include, as relevant for the articulation of the research and design work, immersive digital (still and moving) images, physical scale models, prototypes, and diagrams. “Drawing” will include sketches, diagrams, and scaled plans, sections and elevations. All will serve to articulate the ideas and programmatic intentions of the proposals, and should exhibit the expression and understanding of scale, mood, concept, emotion, intention, material, context, etc… As always, and of course, the students are asked to be creative, curious, inventive, innovative, opportunistic, entrepreneurial, productive, and generous...!

To attend the Final Synthesis Laboratory, students must pass the 1st year laboratories.

The structure of the course includes lectures, self-directed and guided research, on-site visit and direct interactions with key partners and constituents, possible co-working/co-creating sessions, iterative design work, group tutorials, formal presentations and graded reviews (at least three), with additional lectures and participation from external professionals and relevant community/industry members.

The “contest/competition” aspect of this “Contest Studio” per the new curriculum of the graduate degree program is explicit and fully intertwined within the studio. At both the general and specific sense and expectations of the studio, there will be an explicit requirement that stresses strong and articulate visual communication. The focus on visual communication will be developed over the semester, and will culminate in a “mute review” at the end of the semester. The requirement for the work to speak for itself, will proceed hand in hand with the stress of short, precise verbalization of the design work that will be reduced over the semester to its elimination for the last review. Therefore the design intentions and the design work must ultimately (and again over time during the semester) be clear and articulate… and must be communicated visually through drawings, models, diagrams, images, key words, key images, renderings, text, titles, graphs, labels, etc. In most competitions, the author (designer, architect, artist, etc.) is usually not present for the review, deliberations and decisions by the jury. Therefore the work must speak fully for itself, since the author is not present and not able to present verbally. The structure of the studio is in fact designed in four parts, with the last part focusing purely on the “competition” presentation (verbally mute) and possible exhibition (also mute). A composed jury will determine the highest ranked work for this final phase of the studio.