During this course, we will explore mobility design through the examination of natural environments, systems, processes, and organisms, with the intent to design a more circular and less harmful human-planet relationship. Students will embark on a creative and rigorous exploration of various biodesign methodologies, including the biomimicry design tools put forth by the RISD Nature Lab, as pathways toward innovative materials, products, manufacturing methods, services, and experiences. These materials and methods will be placed in context to support the Hyundai Motor Group’s research on the future of mobility, creating design solutions that demonstrate our discoveries’ real-world applications and potential impacts.

Particular focus will be placed on advanced research techniques, such as microscopy imaging, 3D scanning, material & process development, quantitative experimentation & testing, consultation with scientific experts, and referencing scientific research.

The advanced studio curriculum and assignments will provide structured support for a deep dive into student-directed biodesign research. Bi-weekly demos build the technical skill set students need, including a further exploration of biomaterials, generative modeling, AI workflows & ethics, additive manufacturing, life cycle analysis, experiment design, public speaking, and product photography. Guest lecturers and reviews will provide bi-weekly feedback and guidance in addition to that of the teaching team. Frequent check-ins support students in their larger research arc, including a focus on broader design frameworks of Design Justice and user interviews. Throughout the semester, students will have the opportunity to have their work reviewed and critiqued by designers and engineers at Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai, Kia, & Genesis). The final outcome of the semester will be students’ documentation and write-up of their research process and outcomes, which will remain in the Regeneration Studio online archive, as well as an advanced and functional prototype. The final review for this course will also include student presentations to design leadership at Hyundai Motor Group.

A close partnership with the RISD Nature Lab and the ID Department will provide access to the expertise and equipment necessary to complete student-driven research topics. This course features a series of guest lectures, field trips, and demonstrations throughout the semester to provide insight into the quickly expanding field of biodesign and regenerative design.

Elective

During this course, we will explore mobility design through the examination of natural environments, systems, processes, and organisms, with the intent to design a more circular and less harmful human-planet relationship. Students will embark on a creative and rigorous exploration of various biodesign methodologies, including the biomimicry design tools put forth by the RISD Nature Lab, as pathways toward innovative materials, products, manufacturing methods, services, and experiences. These materials and methods will be placed in context to support the Hyundai Motor Group’s research on the future of mobility, creating design solutions that demonstrate our discoveries’ real-world applications and potential impacts.

Particular focus will be placed on advanced research techniques, such as microscopy imaging, 3D scanning, material & process development, quantitative experimentation & testing, consultation with scientific experts, and referencing scientific research.

The advanced studio curriculum and assignments will provide structured support for a deep dive into student-directed biodesign research. Bi-weekly demos build the technical skill set students need, including a further exploration of biomaterials, generative modeling, AI workflows & ethics, additive manufacturing, life cycle analysis, experiment design, public speaking, and product photography. Guest lecturers and reviews will provide bi-weekly feedback and guidance in addition to that of the teaching team. Frequent check-ins support students in their larger research arc, including a focus on broader design frameworks of Design Justice and user interviews. Throughout the semester, students will have the opportunity to have their work reviewed and critiqued by designers and engineers at Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai, Kia, & Genesis). The final outcome of the semester will be students’ documentation and write-up of their research process and outcomes, which will remain in the Regeneration Studio online archive, as well as an advanced and functional prototype. The final review for this course will also include student presentations to design leadership at Hyundai Motor Group.

A close partnership with the RISD Nature Lab and the ID Department will provide access to the expertise and equipment necessary to complete student-driven research topics. This course features a series of guest lectures, field trips, and demonstrations throughout the semester to provide insight into the quickly expanding field of biodesign and regenerative design.

Elective

Building upon practices, techniques, and discourses covered in the first semester of the sculpture curriculum, Sophomore Sculpture Studio II will deepen existing fabrication skills while expanding knowledge into the realm of time-based and movement-based technologies and practices. This course encourages students to explore what matters to them and how to express those ideas while they experiment with hybrid and transdisciplinary working methodologies. 

As the semester progresses, assignments will guide students towards independent inquiries, focusing on both refining and expanding the context for their evolving artistic exploration. Readings, discussions, artist lectures, and research will elicit connections between ideas, narratives, histories, and personal work. Emphasis will be placed on material competency in plaster and casting, digital fabrication, and performance, providing a foundation for further research-based exploration. This will be augmented by Sculpture electives where students self-select into the areas they determine are most relevant to their artistic practices. 

This course is an opportunity to ask meaningful questions about the world—without always needing definitive answers. Throughout, students will be encouraged to take risks, make connections, and actively shape their educational path and burgeoning artistic practices with a focus on developing their individual voice.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Context: Industrial designers entering the professional world in 2026 face a landscape defined by rapid technological change, evolving business models, and increasing expectations that designers contribute beyond form and function. Organizations seek designers who can understand how companies operate, identify where value can be created, and translate insight into meaningful contributions.

This course is an intensive, project-based studio focused on how to identify and develop opportunities within real companies. Students will analyze organizations (with an emphasis on those that recruit and employ RISD graduates) to understand how they create and capture value, where they excel, and where they are vulnerable to change.

Through several short, cumulative projects, students will learn to interpret business models, identify unrealized potential, and develop design-driven proposals that respond to strategic needs. There will be emphasis on clarity of thinking and communication, and framing opportunities in ways that are meaningful to organizations and aligned with their priorities.

Working individually and in teams, students will engage a range of companies and industries. Each project culminates in a concise, professional presentation that articulates a clear opportunity and a compelling design response.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Analyze and clearly describe how a company creates and captures value

• Identify strategic opportunities, risks, and unmet needs within existing organizations

• Develop design proposals grounded in business, user, and organizational context

• Communicate ideas through structured, professional presentations

• Work collaboratively to synthesize findings, insights, and designs

The course is organized as a sequence of short, cumulative projects. Each project follows a common framework:

• Understand the company and its business model

• Identify areas of strength, weakness, or unmet needs

• Define a meaningful opportunity

• Propose a design intervention aligned with that opportunity

• Present findings in a clear and compelling format

• Projects increase in complexity over the semester, culminating in a final presentation that integrates analysis, insight, and design proposal.

In addition to developing strategic and analytical skills, students will gain experience engaging with companies they may encounter in internships or full-time roles.

By learning how to evaluate organizations, recognize where they can contribute, and clearly articulate their value, students will strengthen their ability to navigate the transition from academic work to professional practice.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

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 seminar is intended as a reinforcement of and preparation for the self-choice Design Thesis taking place the following Spring. The seminar will assist the student in becoming more aware of factors which determine a successful outcome for a design intervention within an existing building. As the first part of the three-part thesis sequence, the course serves as the building block for INTAR-2397 and the student's approved Design Thesis Feasibility Report.

Major Requirement | MDes Interior Studies Adaptive Reuse

Photographers and artists have been pushing the limits of what our understanding is of a photographic object for decades. Arguably, even the first pictures made by Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Daguerre could be described as 3-dimensional objects. This course breaks from the 2-dimensional norm and will investigate the philosophical, practical, and material connections between the readymade, sculpture, and photography. Through the making of “photographic" objects and installation, students will further explore the experimental process of making meaning through transcending the everyday.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $175.00

This course is open to non-majors pending seat availability. Contact the instructor for permission to register.

Elective

Students will work within a guided research topic to develop a design investigation with defined objectives, methods, and outcomes. As a 9-credit studio, this course will also require that students design and execute a material, representational, or theoretical experiment tied to a design detail within their investigations. In this thesis studio, students will have periodic formal reviews with an advisory panel, and will use feedback from the panel to produce a book that gives a written and graphic presentation of the research context, process, and findings as well as a final assessment of the outcomes.

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

Envision Resilience Challenge: Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

Surella Segu (ARCH) / Elizabeth Hermann (LDAR) / Jonathan Bell (INTAR)

The 2026 Three Architectures ‘Superstudio’ is the first of what has been proposed as an annual advanced elective studio to be shared by the three Architecture departments:

Architecture (ARCH), Landscape Architecture (LDAR) and Interior Architecture (INTAR).

The focus is on urban issues and rethinking the city in light of climate impacts and social and environmental justice issues - including issues of food sovereignty, equitable access to resources, affordability in housing, walkability, sustainable practices, urban heat island effects, and flooding. The purpose of this interdisciplinary studio is to address these issues through a multidisciplinary lens and a framework of collaboration - all skills that are needed to engage in an impactful practice. 2026 also offers an opportunity to partner with the New England-based organization Envision Resilience whose signature Challenge is an annual place-based, multi-university design studio that takes place in communities at the forefront of climate challenges throughout the Northeast. The Lewiston-Auburn, Maine twin city area is the subject of the 2026 Challenge and invites students to engage technical, ecological and social systems simultaneously, and to consider integrated design strategies that respond to the lived realities of this urban area and it’s rich mixture of 19 th -century French Canadian immigrants and more recent arrivals from Somalia and other African nations, while envisioning more resilient futures for all. A number of questions guide this investigation:

• What does climate resilience look like for an inland, post-industrial city?
• How might the Androscoggin River, its canals and surrounding farmlands become connectors rather than barriers—ecologically, socially and spatially?
• How can adaptation strategies also advance housing stability, food security, environmental justice and economic opportunity?
• How can a city support agricultural uses in the context of a changing climate, increasing development pressure and growing demand for locally produced food?
• How can design help make futures that are not only safer, but more hopeful, tangible and shared?

The course is open to upper-level undergrads and graduate students.

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

In this beginning writing course, we will look at contemporary texts that push against the boundaries of traditional literary genres (fiction, poetry, theatre, creative non-fiction, graphic fiction, etc) and blur the lines between those genres as well. Together we will read some of the most exciting contemporary writers who resist our attempts to categorize them. By examining these texts and trying our own creative writing experiments, we will gain a better understanding of what traditional genres are, the techniques they employ, and ways they can be manipulated to create something new.

Elective

This interdisciplinary studio-seminar explores artistic practice beyond traditional exhibition spaces, focusing on public art as a collaborative, site-responsive, and audience-driven form. Drawing from socially engaged practices and ambitious public commissions, students will examine how artists, designers, and curators build careers that engage broad publics, with an emphasis on imagining and shaping more just, sustainable, and future-oriented civic spaces.

Developed in partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the course invites students to develop public art projects that may be realized on the Greenway at the culmination of the semester. Students will draw inspiration from local contexts, case studies, historical precedents, and dialogue with guest artists and curators. These projects provide hands-on experience with the full lifecycle of public work—from concept through fabrication and presentation.

Course topics include proposal development, artist selection processes, fabrication, project management, stakeholder engagement, and public art administration, with attention to working with civic partners, navigating approvals, and designing for durability, safety, and public interaction. Using Providence and Boston as living laboratories, students will engage with sites, institutions, and collaborators, including the Greenway’s curatorial and production teams.

Co-taught by Katherine Cooper (Director of Academic and Creative Partnerships at RISD) and Audrey Lopez, Director & Curator of Public Art at the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the course emphasizes contextually grounded, socially engaged work and offers an alternative to the commercial gallery pathway, encouraging students to develop practices aligned with their own values.

Note: While the course focuses on proposal development and prototyping, a select group of students will be invited to further develop and realize their projects for potential installation on the Greenway in 2027.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

This course is open to graduate students only. Please contact the instructor for permission to register.

Elective

Unfolding a narrative has always been a mastery of visibility and concealment, used to convey emotions and information. Folding techniques and origami create layers of hidden spaces and ordered sequences, providing a unique opportunity for storytelling. In today’s digitally saturated world, this practice responds to material ethics and new ways of seeing, allowing artists to develop their own methods of problem-solving and surface creation.

Through hands-on paper folding exercises, experimental illustration, and sculptural narrative projects, this course equips students with the technical and conceptual tools to expand illustration into three-dimensional, interactive forms. Artists such as M.C. Escher, Brian Dettmer, Tomoko Fuse, and Ankon Mitra serve not only as inspiration but also as models for sustainable and innovative approaches. Students will visit the Loeb Collection for inspiration and experiment with both traditional and experimental forms to reveal hidden and emerging stories while critically engaging with issues like capitalist overproduction.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00 - $50.00

Elective

In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice.

This course is required for FAV seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures.

Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice.

This course is required for FAV Seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures.

Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

This course takes a materials-driven approach to exploring smart materials as catalysts for design innovation, inviting students to rethink and reinvent our relationship with the physical world.

Unlike conventional materials, smart materials behave in ways that resemble living organisms, visibly transforming when exposed to external stimuli. In response to environmental changes, they may change color, shape, stiffness, or fluidity, or even generate electricity and emit light. These programmable properties open up all kinds of new possibilities for designers.

In this class we will focus on designing products that make use of shape-changing smart materials. The first part of the course will consist of a series of brief ungraded projects, exploring how these materials respond to stimuli such as light, temperature, and electricity. Through rapid experimentation, students will be encouraged to take creative risks, pursue unexpected discoveries, and develop original ideas.

During the final six weeks, students will design and make an artifact that synthesizes the knowledge, techniques, and insights developed through their earlier investigations with shape-change materials. Smart materials will be provided, so that out-of-pocket expenses are minimized.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Elective

This course will focus on animation and rendering using a combination of 2D, 3D and compositing software. It covers detailed 3D modeling, rigging, and texturing.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

The course will teach lighting, modeling and animation, with an emphasis on basic principles as they relate to 3D tools. The overall goal of this course is to generalize the study of the 3D world and to give students basic problem-solving skills needed for continued use of 3D animation software. After a series of lectures covering the basics of navigating the interface, each student produces a short animation. Each student has focused, individual time with the instructor. The class will be taught in Blender, but students who demonstrate a sufficient proficiency in other suitable packages may elect to use them for some assignments. Course may be repeated once for credit.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

The course will teach lighting, modeling and animation, with an emphasis on basic principles as they relate to 3D tools. The overall goal of this course is to generalize the study of the 3D world and to give students basic problem-solving skills needed for continued use of 3D animation software. After a series of lectures covering the basics of navigating the interface, each student produces a short animation. Each student has focused, individual time with the instructor. The class will be taught in Blender, but students who demonstrate a sufficient proficiency in other suitable packages may elect to use them for some assignments. Course may be repeated once for credit.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

In Video Practices, students will work with digital video cameras, sound recorders and microphones, and editing and color correction software. Through projects, screenings, in-class assignments, and readings, students will explore key concepts in digital moving-image making to build, expand, and deepen their time-based practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $60.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

In Video Practices, students will work with digital video cameras, sound recorders and microphones, and editing and color correction software. Through projects, screenings, in-class assignments, and readings, students will explore key concepts in digital moving-image making to build, expand, and deepen their time-based practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $60.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video