Graduate Thesis Communications I is a studio course run in parallel with our sibling studio course which focuses on design research methods. Together, we will spend the fall semester casting about, planning and prototyping towards some kind of design proposal or product for execution in the spring. We think about writing in two ways. First as a design tool and second as a communication tool. On the tool for design side, we think about the many ways that writing can help clarify and quickly test out ideas. We think about writing as a form of rapid prototyping alongside sketching, model making, etc. We talk about what writing is good at, when other methods might be more useful, and when to combine methods. We use writing to help clarify and crystalize the thesis plan. On the communication side, we think about the many ways that writing surrounds a designed object (as a proposal, as sales copy, as instructions to users, as specs for manufacture, as criticism, etc.). We think about the audiences for those various kinds of writing and how to think about what they want and need. We talk about the thesis as a tool for explaining the design but also as a tool for helping you advance your career goals. At the end of the course, you will have a partially complete draft of your thesis. which will set you up for an excellent spring.

Enrollment in this course is limited to Graduate Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | MID Industrial Design

The first core studio in the program is centered on an investigation of the mechanics of articulating meaning in an image. Through a variety of projects, students will investigate the efficacy of various strategies in traditional and new media, and engage in perceptual experiments in order to study the intersection of art and visual psychology.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00 - $150.00

Major Requirement | MFA Illustration

This seminar addresses key critical theory and socio-political aspects of illustration practices from a historical perspective. Reading, discussion, and meaningful integration of ideas into studio writing and activity are goals of the course. Class will meet two times per week including supported research times in various special collections and the library. Faculty determine the content of the seminar each term, balancing attention to issues defined by the expertise and interests of the graduate cohort and subjects of relevance to the field and professional practice. Theorists of special concern to contemporary illustration practice will be highlighted; statistics and technical information about communication media will illuminate how art objects have circulated in their own eras. Critical reading, writing, and presentation will be assessed.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00 - $75.00

Major Requirement | MFA Illustration

In this class graduate students of across disciplines will get trained on various digital fabrication tools, then create experimental work— individually and in small, cross-disciplinary groups—inspired by the process itself, the materials and the potential for new and innovative applications. Readings about contemporary ideas and approaches to craft, digital fabrication, making, community-based maker labs, and their role and potential in Social justice and equity will complement our inquiry.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $150.00

Elective

This course is predicated on deep student focus on social engagement and the societal benefits attached to their studio work. Students will investigate and critique methodologies of contemporary, socially engaged artists to develop their own progressive work in order to question and shift traditionally narrow and restrictive paradigms in Illustration that preference and reward the hegemonic at the expense of the progressive, dissident, and critical work needed to advocate for the historically underrepresented. Collaborative projects with local artists, individuals and community organizations will be encouraged and supported to directly connect students with local communities. Students will be required to present self-driven work periodically in response to selected topics, readings, and community discussion.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $150.00

Major Requirement | MFA Illustration

This course emphasizes the mining and contextualization of one's own work as a nexus for growth through the active, ongoing and evolving consideration of your own studio practice as a topic of study in itself. This work will spring from and shed light on your creative intuition, processes and outcomes in a way that will helps you to communicate your work to others through language. In turn, it is hoped this voicing of essential components of your work will help streamline your practice and expedite your artistic production.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $25.00

Major Requirement | MFA Illustration

The course focuses on understanding the origin of museums and recognizing the influence that certain dominant design aesthetics, approaches, and narratives had on exhibitions. The museum architectural space and its interior exhibition design are never 'neutral' and the study of its history, codification, and exploitation are essential to rebalance and subvert the structural inequalities between Trouillot's agents (museums/institution), actors (curators/exhibit designers), and subject of museum narratives (artifacts/art/belongings). Through lectures, readings, and class debate, students will be encouraged to question how aesthetics impregnate exhibition environments through materials, light, colors, forms, and meanings; to acknowledge that architecture and exhibition design aesthetics are always politicized and that in the tiniest details of their morphology and their organization, museums have the power to validate, the power to corroborate, the power to include, and the deliberate power to silence. 

Major Elective: MDes ENE

Topics in Exhibition and Narrative Environments I is the first part in a year-long exploration of a fluid field in which exhibition occurs in museums as well as other environments. This seminar offers various approaches for that exploration and will provide the student insight into different aspects of exhibition: curatorial matters, experience design, narrative creation, graphic design, new media, user participation, installation, site specificity, production, etc. The content may change from year to year to include special projects. The content may change from year to year and may include theory, hands-on installation, curatorial matters, research, design planning, materials, new technology, time based interactions, and, of course, design of the narrative environment.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies Exhibition and Narrative Environments

This lecture course is designed to familiarize students with structural principles and systems as they relate to the study of interior architecture and adaptive reuse. The course will examine the performance and composition of various structural systems, including wood, lightweight metal, steel, masonry, and concrete structures. Local examples in the built environment will be explored to gain an understanding of structures, their materials and components in adaptive reuse. Course work will be complimented by visits to local examples in the built environment.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies Adaptive Reuse

This class will introduce the fundamentals of orthographic drawing through the investigation of an existing object. Working with the object, the student will study and implement the use of plan, section, axonometric and perspective to expose the spatial qualities of the structure. Basic drawing conventions and model making techniques will be introduced. The concept of architectural scale will be explored.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

This class will introduce the fundamentals of orthographic drawing through the investigation of an existing object. Working with the object, the student will study and implement the use of plan, section, axonometric and perspective to expose the spatial qualities of the structure. Basic drawing conventions and model making techniques will be introduced. The concept of architectural scale will be explored.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

This class will introduce the fundamentals of orthographic drawing through the investigation of an existing object. Working with the object, the student will study and implement the use of plan, section, axonometric and perspective to expose the spatial qualities of the structure. Basic drawing conventions and model making techniques will be introduced. The concept of architectural scale will be explored.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Using a local site in Providence, this studio will focus on the fundamentals of documenting an existing structure. These techniques will include, at a minimum, measuring, surveying, photographing, analyzing of materials and construction details, researching databases for relevant, related information and understanding the existing structural and mechanical systems. This information will be organized to create a full architectural documentation set. Documentation will also be explored in model form, building on the skills acquired in Studio Ia. Upon completion of documentation, the students will learn to analyze the existing structure both as an entity and within the adjacent urban context. The studio will also focus on the presentation of such analysis and the possible uses of it in design transformation.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Using a local site in Providence, this studio will focus on the fundamentals of documenting an existing structure. These techniques will include, at a minimum, measuring, surveying, photographing, analyzing of materials and construction details, researching databases for relevant, related information and understanding the existing structural and mechanical systems. This information will be organized to create a full architectural documentation set. Documentation will also be explored in model form, building on the skills acquired in Studio Ia. Upon completion of documentation, the students will learn to analyze the existing structure both as an entity and within the adjacent urban context. The studio will also focus on the presentation of such analysis and the possible uses of it in design transformation.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Using a local site in Providence, this studio will focus on the fundamentals of documenting an existing structure. These techniques will include, at a minimum, measuring, surveying, photographing, analyzing of materials and construction details, researching databases for relevant, related information and understanding the existing structural and mechanical systems. This information will be organized to create a full architectural documentation set. Documentation will also be explored in model form, building on the skills acquired in Studio Ia. Upon completion of documentation, the students will learn to analyze the existing structure both as an entity and within the adjacent urban context. The studio will also focus on the presentation of such analysis and the possible uses of it in design transformation.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Using an existing site, this studio will introduce the concept of transformation and intervention through a program of new use. The students will propose a design intervention to transform the site for a new program. These interventions will be based on the accommodation of the design program but will also be a response to the analysis completed in Studio Existing Construct. It will require an understanding of the structural system and the issues of egress. The culmination of this studio will result in a design that is conceptually sound and complete in its description as a full architectural proposal in drawings and models. The student will prepare a design proposition including analysis of the existing structure and its inherent existence within the new work.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Using an existing site, this studio will introduce the concept of transformation and intervention through a program of new use. The students will propose a design intervention to transform the site for a new program. These interventions will be based on the accommodation of the design program but will also be a response to the analysis completed in Studio Existing Construct. It will require an understanding of the structural system and the issues of egress. The culmination of this studio will result in a design that is conceptually sound and complete in its description as a full architectural proposal in drawings and models. The student will prepare a design proposition including analysis of the existing structure and its inherent existence within the new work.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Using an existing site, this studio will introduce the concept of transformation and intervention through a program of new use. The students will propose a design intervention to transform the site for a new program. These interventions will be based on the accommodation of the design program but will also be a response to the analysis completed in Studio Existing Construct. It will require an understanding of the structural system and the issues of egress. The culmination of this studio will result in a design that is conceptually sound and complete in its description as a full architectural proposal in drawings and models. The student will prepare a design proposition including analysis of the existing structure and its inherent existence within the new work.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Drawing in the Architecture and Design disciplines is historically understood as serving two purposes: to simultaneously precede the construction and manufacturing of a building or artifact or; constitute the analytical tool to measure or render the dimensions of a space or a shape. In the former, drawing is a generative tool; while in the latter is a survey instrument. In both cases, information whether real or virtual, is provided through visual representation conventions, more or less subjective, quantified and laid out according to the rules of applicable geometries. 

Nevertheless, beyond serving generative and analytical purposes, simultaneously or independently, drawing can be also the only visual reference of an idea, in the form of a memory representation of a model or a rule: an image of a city or building that no longer exists; a space or fragment that was never built; an inventorial of typological styles or; the visual representation of series of adaptive transformations. This broad spectrum is of great relevance within the disciplines of Interior Architecture and Adaptive Reuse. In our discipline both generative and analysis phases overlap. Our field of operations is based on the transformation of an existing environment. As such, drawing can constitute an efficient process of understanding real and contribute to its adaptability. Therefore, we propose a method that hybridizes analysis and generation, starting from a projective reality never realized.  This approach will be developed from the collection of examples of series of visionary drawings from unbuilt structures archived in publications at RISD Fleet Library collection, whose artistic value, is of important relevance for the Architecture and Design disciplines. Over the period of 12 weeks, we will engage all four means of representation and iteratively purpose a drawing method to combine deductive transformations from the archival drawing by proposing a set of inductive instructions.  Our aim will be to on one hand to focus the class on the need to acquire a personal technique in the representation of visual information and on the other hand to be capable of developing drawing methodologies to face the complexity of an intervention driven by the constrains of an existing structure or artifact.

Throughout the semester the class will develop a process in 7 exercises that include the reconstruction in axonometric projection; the subsequent formal manipulation of tridimensional translation in axonometric projection; introduction to parametric modeling to construct a model for rapid prototyping; and the CNC milling of a panel exploring the technique of bas-relieve. The class will take advantage of the Rhinoceros 3D modeling platform simultaneously, for the construction of orthographic projections, rendering visualization, 3D modeling manipulation, Grasshopper, Paneling tools plug-in for Rhino; Rapid Prototyping, and CNC milling fabrication, while developing knowledge of film editing software.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

Drawing in the Architecture and Design disciplines is historically understood as serving two purposes: to simultaneously precede the construction and manufacturing of a building or artifact or; constitute the analytical tool to measure or render the dimensions of a space or a shape. In the former, drawing is a generative tool; while in the latter is a survey instrument. In both cases, information whether real or virtual, is provided through visual representation conventions, more or less subjective, quantified and laid out according to the rules of applicable geometries. 

Nevertheless, beyond serving generative and analytical purposes, simultaneously or independently, drawing can be also the only visual reference of an idea, in the form of a memory representation of a model or a rule: an image of a city or building that no longer exists; a space or fragment that was never built; an inventorial of typological styles or; the visual representation of series of adaptive transformations. This broad spectrum is of great relevance within the disciplines of Interior Architecture and Adaptive Reuse. In our discipline both generative and analysis phases overlap. Our field of operations is based on the transformation of an existing environment. As such, drawing can constitute an efficient process of understanding real and contribute to its adaptability. Therefore, we propose a method that hybridizes analysis and generation, starting from a projective reality never realized.  This approach will be developed from the collection of examples of series of visionary drawings from unbuilt structures archived in publications at RISD Fleet Library collection, whose artistic value, is of important relevance for the Architecture and Design disciplines. Over the period of 12 weeks, we will engage all four means of representation and iteratively purpose a drawing method to combine deductive transformations from the archival drawing by proposing a set of inductive instructions.  Our aim will be to on one hand to focus the class on the need to acquire a personal technique in the representation of visual information and on the other hand to be capable of developing drawing methodologies to face the complexity of an intervention driven by the constrains of an existing structure or artifact.

Throughout the semester the class will develop a process in 7 exercises that include the reconstruction in axonometric projection; the subsequent formal manipulation of tridimensional translation in axonometric projection; introduction to parametric modeling to construct a model for rapid prototyping; and the CNC milling of a panel exploring the technique of bas-relieve. The class will take advantage of the Rhinoceros 3D modeling platform simultaneously, for the construction of orthographic projections, rendering visualization, 3D modeling manipulation, Grasshopper, Paneling tools plug-in for Rhino; Rapid Prototyping, and CNC milling fabrication, while developing knowledge of film editing software.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies