This course will examine the development of adaptive reuse practice in the context of its social, political, technological, and economic circumstances, as it pertains to the design culture of the period. Special emphasis will be given to interior renovations, additions, transformations and other interventions of adaptive reuse. Attention will also be given to design theory, and the evolving doctrines relating to heritage. This course will be conducted in seminar form with graduate level discourse and discussion. Requirements include midterm, final exam and research presentation.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies Adaptive Reuse

This course builds on the foundations gained in previous studio and course work to further design development abilities. The studio will require the integration of the student's emerging knowledge of site analysis, mapping & documentation, innovative tectonics and systems, applicable theoretical issues, relevant cultural precedents, and material investigation into a cohesive design agenda.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

This course builds on the foundations gained in previous studio and course work to further design development abilities. The studio will require the integration of the student's emerging knowledge of site analysis, mapping & documentation, innovative tectonics and systems, applicable theoretical issues, relevant cultural precedents, and material investigation into a cohesive design agenda.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

This course will focus on factors influencing the design of the interior environment through exploring issues of anthropometrics (the study of the characteristics of the human body), ergonomics (the application of anthropometric data to design), and proxemics (the study of the effect of cultural/psychological factors on design). It will be complemented by a study of acoustics as it relates to the relationship between the built environment and sound; predicting and designing for the acoustic performance of spaces, and executing acoustic measurements (impulse response, reverberations).

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

This course will focus on factors influencing the design of the interior environment through exploring issues of anthropometrics (the study of the characteristics of the human body), ergonomics (the application of anthropometric data to design), and proxemics (the study of the effect of cultural/psychological factors on design). It will be complemented by a study of acoustics as it relates to the relationship between the built environment and sound; predicting and designing for the acoustic performance of spaces, and executing acoustic measurements (impulse response, reverberations).

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

The Design Thesis is the culmination of the Master of Design studies in the Department of Interior Architecture in both concentrations, Adaptive Reuse [AR] and Exhibition and Narrative Environments [ENE]. A thesis needs to propose a line of research and exploration in the context of each discipline. Throughout the semester students embark on a series of investigations that will lead to a unique set of questions that can be arguable and eventually contribute to the knowledge base in a field. The class provides an opportunity for graduate students to demonstrate their knowledge and acquired skills in that field through personal investigation, leading to the postulation of a hypothesis, and the testing of this hypothesis during the course of the Spring semester.

This course will enable students to focus on both conceptual and applied issues emerging from a critical analysis of a subject matter of their interest and understand how they unfold in the built environment and/or the realm of exhibitions and narrative environments. Work this semester will grow from each student’s unique field of inquiry as explored through the Spring courses Investigating Interiority (AR) and Topics in Exhibitions and Narrative Environments (ENE) and expanded upon during the Summer. This work will be the connection to Design Thesis.

As part of the 2-semester thesis sequence, Design Thesis Preparation focuses on a further investigation of a thesis topic through the articulation of a thesis argument and line of research towards an exploration of context whether physical in the built environment whether a curatorial framework in the disciplines of Exhibition and Narrative Environments. Such explorations will lead to the establishment of a design approach. Each of these areas will contribute to the design process in the following Spring. The design process will conclude at the beginning of May when thesis book production and graduate thesis show design and installation will begin. The successful graduate will enter the professional world equipped with a design thesis, a thesis publication and a designed exhibition.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

The Design Thesis is the culmination of the Master of Design studies in the Department of Interior Architecture in both concentrations, Adaptive Reuse [AR] and Exhibition and Narrative Environments [ENE]. A thesis needs to propose a line of research and exploration in the context of each discipline. Throughout the semester students embark on a series of investigations that will lead to a unique set of questions that can be arguable and eventually contribute to the knowledge base in a field. The class provides an opportunity for graduate students to demonstrate their knowledge and acquired skills in that field through personal investigation, leading to the postulation of a hypothesis, and the testing of this hypothesis during the course of the Spring semester.

This course will enable students to focus on both conceptual and applied issues emerging from a critical analysis of a subject matter of their interest and understand how they unfold in the built environment and/or the realm of exhibitions and narrative environments. Work this semester will grow from each student’s unique field of inquiry as explored through the Spring courses Investigating Interiority (AR) and Topics in Exhibitions and Narrative Environments (ENE) and expanded upon during the Summer. This work will be the connection to Design Thesis.

As part of the 2-semester thesis sequence, Design Thesis Preparation focuses on a further investigation of a thesis topic through the articulation of a thesis argument and line of research towards an exploration of context whether physical in the built environment whether a curatorial framework in the disciplines of Exhibition and Narrative Environments. Such explorations will lead to the establishment of a design approach. Each of these areas will contribute to the design process in the following Spring. The design process will conclude at the beginning of May when thesis book production and graduate thesis show design and installation will begin. The successful graduate will enter the professional world equipped with a design thesis, a thesis publication and a designed exhibition.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

The Design Thesis is the culmination of the Master of Design studies in the Department of Interior Architecture in both concentrations, Adaptive Reuse [AR] and Exhibition and Narrative Environments [ENE]. A thesis needs to propose a line of research and exploration in the context of each discipline. Throughout the semester students embark on a series of investigations that will lead to a unique set of questions that can be arguable and eventually contribute to the knowledge base in a field. The class provides an opportunity for graduate students to demonstrate their knowledge and acquired skills in that field through personal investigation, leading to the postulation of a hypothesis, and the testing of this hypothesis during the course of the Spring semester.

This course will enable students to focus on both conceptual and applied issues emerging from a critical analysis of a subject matter of their interest and understand how they unfold in the built environment and/or the realm of exhibitions and narrative environments. Work this semester will grow from each student’s unique field of inquiry as explored through the Spring courses Investigating Interiority (AR) and Topics in Exhibitions and Narrative Environments (ENE) and expanded upon during the Summer. This work will be the connection to Design Thesis.

As part of the 2-semester thesis sequence, Design Thesis Preparation focuses on a further investigation of a thesis topic through the articulation of a thesis argument and line of research towards an exploration of context whether physical in the built environment whether a curatorial framework in the disciplines of Exhibition and Narrative Environments. Such explorations will lead to the establishment of a design approach. Each of these areas will contribute to the design process in the following Spring. The design process will conclude at the beginning of May when thesis book production and graduate thesis show design and installation will begin. The successful graduate will enter the professional world equipped with a design thesis, a thesis publication and a designed exhibition.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

The Design Thesis is the culmination of the Master of Design studies in the Department of Interior Architecture in both concentrations, Adaptive Reuse [AR] and Exhibition and Narrative Environments [ENE]. A thesis needs to propose a line of research and exploration in the context of each discipline. Throughout the semester students embark on a series of investigations that will lead to a unique set of questions that can be arguable and eventually contribute to the knowledge base in a field. The class provides an opportunity for graduate students to demonstrate their knowledge and acquired skills in that field through personal investigation, leading to the postulation of a hypothesis, and the testing of this hypothesis during the course of the Spring semester.

This course will enable students to focus on both conceptual and applied issues emerging from a critical analysis of a subject matter of their interest and understand how they unfold in the built environment and/or the realm of exhibitions and narrative environments. Work this semester will grow from each student’s unique field of inquiry as explored through the Spring courses Investigating Interiority (AR) and Topics in Exhibitions and Narrative Environments (ENE) and expanded upon during the Summer. This work will be the connection to Design Thesis.

As part of the 2-semester thesis sequence, Design Thesis Preparation focuses on a further investigation of a thesis topic through the articulation of a thesis argument and line of research towards an exploration of context whether physical in the built environment whether a curatorial framework in the disciplines of Exhibition and Narrative Environments. Such explorations will lead to the establishment of a design approach. Each of these areas will contribute to the design process in the following Spring. The design process will conclude at the beginning of May when thesis book production and graduate thesis show design and installation will begin. The successful graduate will enter the professional world equipped with a design thesis, a thesis publication and a designed exhibition.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Interior Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies

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 - Sustainability Lab: Advanced Research Studio and LDAR/INTAR-501G - Sustainability Lab: Material Explorations.

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

Elective

This 3-credit elective 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 New England, this skill-building seminar will explore one selected material each year and expose students to different techniques and methods of researching and working with the region's intrinsic materials.

In tandem with the co-requisite studio, students will collaborate with expert scientists, artists, craftspeople, and designers to refine their material literacy and develop multiple hands-on explorations that go beyond our disciplinary conventions to generate innovative fabrication techniques and applications for the built environment. This process includes becoming familiar with a material's inherent characteristics and behaviors, its composition and connection to vernacular and craft, and finally, developing novel research methods for design that rely on physical experimentation. 

This is a co-requisite course. Students must register for LDAR/INTAR-500G - Sustainability Lab: Advanced Research Studio and LDAR/INTAR-501G - Sustainability Lab: Material Explorations.

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

Elective

This course is designed to challenge first year graduates to rethink their previous assumptions about their work, prior training, working methodologies and approaches to their practice. Through a series of rigorous and innovative start-up exercises, graduates are encouraged to expand their subjects, abandon their comforts zones, fail, edit, and (re) direct their work. Equal emphasis is placed on critical thinking and critical making. Faculty, meet weekly, individually with each student to provide constructive feedback and necessary structure. In small group discussions and in-class reviews, first years are required to actively participate in discourse and take responsibility for the collective dialogue. The resulting insight and shared knowledge between students, along with their own personal gain, sets the tone and direction for their work at RISD over the next two years.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

Following the completion of the first year, second-year graduates identify their personal areas of interest essential to the development of their thesis research and practice. Students are required to outline and pursue independent work with a self-determined structure, timeline, and intentions. Regardless of outcome, students are expected to evidence their progress weekly during individual meetings with faculty. Central to the second year, graduates are required to demonstrate a high level of self-motivation, vision, and initiative reflected through their concentrated inquiry and the rigorous exploration of their ideas. In conclusion of the term, second year graduates are required to complete a thesis presentation, to a J+M faculty review committee, in approval of their preliminary objectives and strategies in preparation for Graduate J+M Thesis.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

This course utilizes general and specific topoi to critically analyze the field of contemporary jewelry. Students will develop the ability to write and speak with precision and complexity regarding their own work and that of others. In the process, we will create a communal topography generated by a network of inquiry to aid in locating ourselves and objects. Students have significant latitude to incorporate individual interests in written assignments. Themes addressed include but are not limited to: cultural identity, material history, marginalization, and exhibition strategies.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

This course is devoted to developing one's abilities to write and speak with precision and complexity, about one's own work and the work of others. We will examine trends and movements in contemporary art through the lens of critical theory. We will investigate what contemporary art can tell us about the relationships between history, images, and visual culture, subsequently developing the skills necessary to write about your work, what it articulates and argues, and the ideas and traditions from which it emerges. Each term will identify and address a new set of themes relevant to course content.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

In this studio, first-year graduates begin to recognize and develop personal areas of interest. Direction is given to bring structure to the exploration of various processes, materials, concepts, and formats. Weekly individual meetings focus on student's progress and response to assignments, as well as independent research.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

In this studio course, second-year students identify and pursue personally driven research. Weekly individual meetings and studio visits take place with the instructor, and also with scheduled first-year and second-year group critiques. Students are required to maintain a continuous record of their research and development through drawings, writings, samples, models, etc. Active participation in group discussions and critiques is mandatory.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

This course provides a cultural history of landscape and landscape architecture through various voices, lenses, and built examples. Following a loose chronology, this seminar will trace the shifting trajectory of landscapes at multiple scales, including lawns, gardens, and suburbs; roads and sanitary infrastructure; agricultural and energy landscapes; rivers and waterfronts, among others. As the second history-theory course in the sequence, we will continue to build upon key concepts explored in History-Theory 1, such as the relationship between Nature and culture, land ethics, systems thinking and ecology, and how landscape architecture has operated as a site for unequal, racialized distributions of power. To that end, we will study, define, critique, and attempt to make sense of the multiplicity of actors that shape environments, including the role of the Designer and the inextricably intertwined forces of colonization and capitalism, federal policies, non-humans, shifting attitudes about Nature, etc. 
 
To provoke critical thinking about the development of landscape form and ideas, readings will be drawn from various perspectives, including landscape architecture, social and environmental history, anthropology, science and technology studies, queer and feminist studies, and geography. These fields will help us understand history as a foundation for thinking about the landscape’s relationship between past and present and center and margin. By critically probing landscape architecture’s canon and its counter-narratives, we will consider how we can be better poised to understand and articulate our own contributions to the field as future practitioners.

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

Major Requirement | MLA-I Landscape Architecture

This course explores design principles central to landscape architecture. Three interrelated aspects of design are pursued:

1) the elements of composition and their formal, spatial, and tectonic manipulation

2) meanings conveyed by formal choices and transformations

3) interactions of cultural and ecological forces in the landscape.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

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

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This core studio stresses middle scale landscape architectural design. A series of studio problems will explore urban public spaces. Students will endeavor to represent contemporary cultural and ecological ideas in land form. There will be an emphasis on constructive strategies, the use of plants in design and methods of representation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

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

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture