In addition to teaching at RISD, Tom Weis is co-founder of the Altimeter Design Group. His work focuses on the use of objects and artifacts to connect audiences and organizations to a range of complex issues. Since 2015, Weis has worked with partners in the nuclear threat reduction space and has designed and facilitated workshops for such organizations as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations and various think tanks. He has been co-lead on the development of new foresight exercises with strategists at Sandia National Laboratory. This work has led to collaborations with officers from the US Army and the Navy SEALs, along with nuclear fuel cycles experts and defense analysts serving in the National Security Council.
In 2018 Weis initiated a Global Security Fellowship program for postgraduate fellows at RISD that was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2021 he and his team began working with the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
Earlier in his career, Weis led projects that were acknowledged by The New York Times, Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2010 and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s 2010 Design Triennial. He has a deep-rooted knowledge of traditional crafts and devoted years to apprenticing as a traditional wooden boat builder and as studio assistant to the artist Martin Puryear, who recently represented the US at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Weis teaches graduate- and undergraduate-level courses on such topics as design and global security in addition to courses that focus on the use of objects and beauty.
Courses
Fall 2024 Courses
ID 2526-01 - INTRODUCTION TO SOFT GOODS
LevelUndergraduate
UnitIndustrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatStudio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
ID 2526-01
INTRODUCTION TO SOFT GOODS
LevelUndergraduate
UnitIndustrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatStudio
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: W | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PMInstructor(s): Leslie Fontana, Sarah Guerin, Tom WeisLocation(s): Industrial Design Building, Room 602Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course is intended to introduce basic sewing skills and soft goods construction techniques in bag making and soft product design. Students will learn how to operate standard industrial sewing machines and create three-dimensional products from flat patterns. Fabric and notion selection for product performance will be taught as students learn to prototype and create final models of bags and soft products. Access to a portable sewing machine is suggested, as the eight industrial machines will be shared. You will be given some basic sewing supplies, but will need to purchase additional materials based on your class projects.
Elective
INTAR 500G-01 / LDAR 500G-01 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB: ADVANCED RESEARCH STUDIO
Times: TTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PM; T | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AMInstructor(s): Johanna Barthmaier-Payne, Tom WeisLocation(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200Enrolled / Capacity: 14Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This 6-credit advanced elective studio centers around the Sustainability Lab, an initiative between LDAR and INTAR departments to explore creative material approaches to sustainability. Looking specifically at materials common to the New England region, this hands-on research studio asks students to question current attitudes towards exploitative land uses and material cultures and push the boundaries of material use and techniques in professional architecture and landscape architecture design practices.
This studio focuses on New England's material cultures' environmental, geological, and socio-cultural influences and the impact of current land use and manufacturing practices on the professional design industry. This studio will explore one selected material each year through three main components. First, students will study the histories and stories of the selected material and land use and how they have shaped different regions of New England and become entangled in power relations, value systems, and wider networks of material exchange. Second, they will explore the selected material’s behavior, its unique property dynamics, and how they have influenced its different uses. Finally, using both digital and analog fabrication, students will develop iterative creative processes that explore sustainable ways of drawing and making with the selected materials as modular and in-situ techniques.
This is a co-requisite course. Students must register for LDAR/INTAR-500G and LDAR/INTAR-501G.
Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture Graduate Students.
Elective
INTAR 500G-01 / LDAR 500G-01 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB: ADVANCED RESEARCH STUDIO
Times: TTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PM; T | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AMInstructor(s): Johanna Barthmaier-Payne, Tom WeisLocation(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200Enrolled / Capacity: 14Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This 6-credit advanced elective studio centers around the Sustainability Lab, an initiative between LDAR and INTAR departments to explore creative material approaches to sustainability. Looking specifically at materials common to the New England region, this hands-on research studio asks students to question current attitudes towards exploitative land uses and material cultures and push the boundaries of material use and techniques in professional architecture and landscape architecture design practices.
This studio focuses on New England's material cultures' environmental, geological, and socio-cultural influences and the impact of current land use and manufacturing practices on the professional design industry. This studio will explore one selected material each year through three main components. First, students will study the histories and stories of the selected material and land use and how they have shaped different regions of New England and become entangled in power relations, value systems, and wider networks of material exchange. Second, they will explore the selected material’s behavior, its unique property dynamics, and how they have influenced its different uses. Finally, using both digital and analog fabrication, students will develop iterative creative processes that explore sustainable ways of drawing and making with the selected materials as modular and in-situ techniques.
This is a co-requisite course. Students must register for LDAR/INTAR-500G and LDAR/INTAR-501G.
Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture Graduate Students.
Elective
Wintersession 2025 Courses
INTAR 504G-101 / LDAR 504G-101 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB : OPEN RESEARCH
Building on the work completed this fall, this seminar will support the advancement of the design thesis. Through hands-on making, students will refine their design research investigations by establishing clear objectives, methods, and outcomes. The course will include skill-building workshops in the woodshop, group discussions, and one-on-one reviews to guide the progression of their thesis projects.
Elective
INTAR 504G-101 / LDAR 504G-101 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB : OPEN RESEARCH
Building on the work completed this fall, this seminar will support the advancement of the design thesis. Through hands-on making, students will refine their design research investigations by establishing clear objectives, methods, and outcomes. The course will include skill-building workshops in the woodshop, group discussions, and one-on-one reviews to guide the progression of their thesis projects.
Elective
Spring 2025 Courses
INTAR 502G-01 / LDAR 502G-01 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB: THESIS STUDIO
Times: M | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AM; MTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PMInstructor(s): Johanna Barthmaier-Payne, Tom WeisLocation(s): Bayard Ewing Building, Room 109Enrolled / Capacity: 14Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This 6-credit Thesis Studio centers around the Sustainability Lab, an initiative between LDAR and INTAR departments to explore creative material approaches to sustainability. Looking specifically at materials common to the New England region, this hands-on research studio asks students to question current attitudes towards exploitative land uses and material cultures and push the boundaries of material use and techniques in professional architecture and landscape architecture design practices. Students enrolled in this course are required to register for the co-requisite seminar INTAR/LDAR 503G - Sustainability Lab: Material Tectonics + Fabrication.
The Sustainability Lab Thesis studio builds on the work developed in the Fall semester and the progress students have made in articulating a material inquiry for their thesis direction and a theoretical and methodological framework for their research. In this course, each student will continue the development of their design research project in discussion with their primary faculty advisor and secondary and tertiary advisor.
Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture Graduate Students.
Elective
INTAR 502G-01 / LDAR 502G-01 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB: THESIS STUDIO
Times: M | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AM; MTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PMInstructor(s): Johanna Barthmaier-Payne, Tom WeisLocation(s): Bayard Ewing Building, Room 109Enrolled / Capacity: 14Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This 6-credit Thesis Studio centers around the Sustainability Lab, an initiative between LDAR and INTAR departments to explore creative material approaches to sustainability. Looking specifically at materials common to the New England region, this hands-on research studio asks students to question current attitudes towards exploitative land uses and material cultures and push the boundaries of material use and techniques in professional architecture and landscape architecture design practices. Students enrolled in this course are required to register for the co-requisite seminar INTAR/LDAR 503G - Sustainability Lab: Material Tectonics + Fabrication.
The Sustainability Lab Thesis studio builds on the work developed in the Fall semester and the progress students have made in articulating a material inquiry for their thesis direction and a theoretical and methodological framework for their research. In this course, each student will continue the development of their design research project in discussion with their primary faculty advisor and secondary and tertiary advisor.
Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture Graduate Students.
