TEACHING DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS
Teaching Design Fundamentals
I have taught courses in design fundamentals, addressing three-dimensional form and space, in a variety of settings. These courses typically include introduction to conventions of design, drawing, and modeling in both physical and digital formats. In some cases my teaching expands on basic skills students already have, while in other cases my courses introduce design to students with no previous experience. I tailor my courses and projects to the students, but in all situations my goals are similar:
a) develop a process-oriented way of working that is iterative, making something, understanding it, and using that understanding to make again; b) understand the material and phenomenological qualities of what’s made; and c) understand how what’s made relates to human experience.
To achieve these goals I rely on an array of tools and techniques.
1) Material exploration - these can be materials intended for making (wood, clay, wire, paper, etc.), but it is often helpful to explore properties of found materials to deconstruct initial expectations about form-making and materiality. One particular reference I find useful is Richard Serra’s Verblist.
2) Drawing - drawing is helpful for a variety of reasons: it helps us to look closely and understand something; it unlocks sub-conscious coordination between hand and eye that can free our ability to make; it allows us to imagine possibilities that might be initially limited by constraints of size, time, or budget. Drawing can be freehand sketching, measured and scaled, or a combination (working loosely on graph paper is handy for novices). Collage is another useful drawing technique.
3) Sketchup (and digital fabrication) - there is disagreement in some circles about how and when software tools should be introduced in the design process, but I’ve found that if handled appropriately Sketchup is a tool easy enough that it gives a freedom to create, but powerful enough that it can produce plans, sections, and other views that help the communication of ideas. Sketchup is also handy for 3D printing and other digital fabrication techniques that enhance the making process.
4) The body - when I’ve taught without a prescribed curriculum, my favorite set of exercises to teach design fundamentals is to have students make something they can wear, design something to sit on, and design a small structure to inhabit. These exercises clue young designers into the body--the space it occupies, the way it moves, how it can be comfortable (or uncomfortable)--and provides a reference for scale and criteria for use.
5) Reading and precedents - I’m always on the lookout for readings (and videos, etc.) that help decipher the design process or provide good examples. If I had to suggest just one, I’d recommend Francis Ching’s Architecture: Form, Space & Order for the excellent drawings and introduction to design fundamentals. I keep an extensive database of precedents that I find helpful to draw upon and share with students as a way of explaining and encouraging.
Related Projects: Four Futures Design Studio, SpaceTime Installation Projects, Precedent Database, Covid Sketchbook
