This course examines different modes of design intelligence–cognitive schemas that organize how designers approach design problems. The choice of schema produces fundamentally different outcomes, and early decisions about how to frame a problem, often made with incomplete information, have long-term consequences for both project and practice–therein lies the designer’s dilemma. The course helps students become more informed about their options before defaulting to familiar approaches, by examining the cognitive basis of different forms of design intelligences–including their strengths, biases, and limitations. In Spring 2026, we examine this through the lens of sustainability as a familiar class of design problem.

The course begins with a two-part introduction covering i) the cognitive basis of design intelligences and ii) competing and evolving ideas of sustainability in design. This is followed by a survey of six categories of design intelligence and their application to sustainability challenges: 1) engineering–treading lightly, 2) critical regional–stewarding the existing, 3) figuration–lasting forms, 4) consistency–rules for the long game, 5) programmatic–synergistic assemblies, and 6) parametric–closing loops. Each survey draws on cases within and beyond design to trace schemas back to their cognitive and historical basis, and forward to their implications for practice and, cumulatively, urban-architectural outcomes. Weekly sessions combine lectures, extended conversations with guest speakers, and reviews of ongoing student projects.

The deliverable by pairs of students is a public-facing podcast episode–a deep dive into a particular category of design intelligence. This will be developed through three interconnected exercises that prepare the ground for the episode. First is a self-observation experiment analyzing one’s own design process and identifying potential points of augmentation by generative tools. This is followed by the training of an AI agent, using a curated bibliography of a key designer/thinker, as a means of interrogating their cognitive schemas. Third, students will interview one of the course’s guest speakers, drawing on the tools of protocol-analysis to reveal their tacit design knowledge. These components will form the basis of the final public-facing podcast episode that takes stock of the range of intelligences operating within design practice today and debates what might constitute a new frontier, with an eye to challenges in the next two decades and the augmentation of key functions by generative tools.