Digital Media for Designers: Urban Environments

The course is aimed at fostering conceptual as well as technical approaches towards the integration of digital design within the process of urban analysis and design. We will dedicate the semester to develop skills and knowledge that takes advantage of a number of emerging and established digital techniques and positions. The course is structured to offer students space to build their own positions and approaches towards the integration of computation and digital technology within a wider design culture related to urbanization. Material practices and the processes associated with the urban environment will be used to frame and inform the exploration of a wide range of computational design concepts and approaches.  Students will be encouraged to explore specific elements within the city, leveraging the capacities offered by digital design tools.

Through lectures and discussions with guests from the design and urban fields, you will be introduced to design concepts and approaches related to the city and digital design while complimentary workshops will also guide you to develop an investigative process from initial analysis to design strategies and generation as well as evaluation.   The course will cover and develop design skills in digital modeling, scripting, parametric tools as well as offering students the opportunity to engage in a focused investigative project related to the city. Existing precedents and practices of design and urbanism will be studied and considered during the course in order to inform and inspire the development of projects that will allow you to apply and develop your design and analytical positions. Projects developed in the course will be framed by a mandate to explore design, evaluation and material proposals that sensitively reshape and reorganize our contemporary landscapes and urban environments. The course will meet once a week, with both lecture and workshop sessions. The course will also involve regular meetings and discussions with the instructor and will include guest lectures, discussions and visits to contemporary digital designers and urbanists. It is encouraged that applicants to the course have some basic to intermediate level skills in digital tools, although it is not a requirement.

This course will have an irregular first meeting time of Wednesday, September 7, 6 PM, in Gund 109. (This irregular first meeting time is due to the Labor Day holiday and the desire for students to be able to meet during the registration period with faculty who are teaching elective courses that are scheduled on Mondays.)