BASIC DESIGN STUDIO
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2015/2016
- Teacher
- JACOPO PICCIONE
- Credits
- 13
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
Training objectives
- Historically the first examples of what today can be called a class in Basic Design can be found in the “vorkurs” (Bau Haus, 1919-1935) and in the Hochschule fur Gestaltung of Ulm (1954-1960).
In particular, the method developed in Ulm found its groundwork in Gestalt’s psychological studies and in Euclidian geometry, both used as operating tool and aesthetical language. After 50 years of cultural development, this method cannot be put into practice as it is. This course will offer an adaptation of these teachings to today’s times, as a starting point in the creation of an education to design and planning.
The Basic Design Studio is made of a main discipline, Product Design, and a module of Materials and Production. The synergy of both these teachings, aim to provide students with the basic tools to define the proper configuration, finalized to production, of everyday objects.
Through a scientific approach, made up of lessons and class exercises, students will be addressed to through the project planning of product design.
Within this Studio, students have to achieve the ability to describe the design specifications, shaping their project according to them. The final representation will follow this process, from the preliminary concept to the ultimate form.
Besides the graphics capabilities, students will improve an in-depth knowledge of the basic performance of materials, as well as the relationship between the product requirement and the needed performances of its components. This knowhow includes the study of how tracing useful sources to deepen existing and innovative materials. Prerequisites
- In the academic year 2015-2016, the Material & Production Module will be played by two different teachers, in parallel, in Italian and in English. Students can enrol in either one of the two modules.
Students who sign up for the course of Materials and Production in English, is required to speak the language at least level B2. Course programme
- Product Design Module:
- The instruments of communication
- Visual perception and rules of Gestalt
- Color theory
- Pattern design
- Forms and structures
- Quality, and customer needs
- Evolution of the standard
- Packaging design
- Drawing for industrial production
Material & Production Module
-The methods and tools to research and assess materials
-The use of materials in product design
-Materials for product design: wood, ceramics, glass, polymers and metals
-The sustainability of materials
-The light Didactic methods
- The teaching plan is structured in lessons, midway exercises and a final examination. The lessons aim to introduce the students to the main issues they will deal with during planning. Creativity and logical abilities will be developed and evaluated through the exercises. The final examination will be focused on the development of those skills which are needed when dealing with complex problems in a systematic relation.
Within the Module of Material & Production, in addition to lectures and guided tours (in material factories or design museums), will develop the selection and cataloging of any material chosen by students for their final project design, held in collaboration with Product Design. Learning assessment procedures
- The final exam of the Basic Design Studio takes place in the form of student interview, asking for a presentation of the Design exercise and a comment of the results of theoretical and practical exercises made in both the Studio modules (DP + MEP), taking care of their complexity.
All the exercises will be presented to students in due time.
Interim exercises are mandatory, sometimes to be made and delivered in class, in other cases to be completed at home (following the specific instructions of the teacher). The assessment of these exercises will take into account their compliance to the project objectives as well as the delivery method and times that, if not observed, will decrease the judgment.
Students have to deliver all the exercises in any case, whether on time or attached to the final design.
Each delivery will be followed by a summary analysis made by the teacher. According to that each student may be integrate and/or modify the delivered documentation (within a specified period), trying to improve the outcome.
The evaluation of the interim exercises will be based on these criteria: compliance with the project brief, quality of the graphic representation, quality of the concept, on-time delivery.
The development of the final project, which will begin at about half of the course, will be coordinated by all the teachers of the Studio, which will be available to carry out reviews with the students during the whole duration of the course (for the development of both the design and the choice of materials).
The content of the main design project will be discussed on the final examination and its assessment will follow these criteria: proper design framework, compliance of the project with the identified objectives, quality of the graphic representation, compliance between project requirements and chosen materials, completeness of the required documents (number and content of the tables) and quality of the concept.
The final grade will be a weighted average of the interim and final project, according to the assessment of all the teachers involved in the Basic Design Studio (Modules DP and M&P).
For students wishing to attend to only one of the modules of the Basic Design Studio (DP or M&P), chance available for foreign students, the final assessment will follow the guidelines described, while allowing the delivery of: interim exercises of the Module and final exercise in a "short" version, as will be presented during the course. If following a single Module, the final grade will be a weighted average of the interim and final project, arranged by the professor responsible for the Module itself. Reference texts
- Product Design Module:
Bruno Munari, Da cosa nasce cosa, Laterza, 1981
Donald Norman, La caffettiera del masochista. Il design degli oggetti quotidiani, Giunti Editore, 2014
Other text:
Rudolf Arnheim, Arte e percezione visiva, Feltrinelli, 1984
Umberto Eco, La struttura assente, Bompiani, 1980
Bruno Munari, Design e comunicazione visiva, Laterza, 1968
Robert M. Pirsig, Lo zen e l'arte della manutenzione della motocicletta, Adelphi,1980
Bruce Chatwin, Le Vie dei Canti, Adelphi, 1988
Material & Production Module:
Thompson R., Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals, Thames & Hudson, 2007.
Ashby Mike; Johnson K., Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design, Butterworth Heinemann, 2014.
Bolton, W.; Higgins, Raymond A., Materials for Engineers and Technicians, Routledge, 2015
The Basic Design Studio funded the subscription of the Department of Architecture (ay 2015-16) at the website MaterialConnextion; all students will have free access to it for the duration of the course.
Other text:
Ashby M.F., Shercliff H., Cebon D., Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design, Butterworth Heinemann, 2013.
Del Curto B., Marano C., Materiali per il design. Introduzione ai materiali e alle loro proprietà, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana, 2008.
Albers J., Interaction of Color, Yale Univ Press, 2006.
More documentation will be provided within each lesson, including a pdf file of the lesson itself and a short list of suggested books and videos (available at the Department library or freely downloadable online).
