Prototyping for the Public

Led by: Max Jarosz

Place making in public spaces has increasingly become an experimental territory for emerging fabrication techniques and interactive mediums through temporary architectural installations. Examples of these types of projects include Howeler + Yoon’s SwingTime and Lateral Office’s Impulse. These projects, while temporary in nature, offer architects an opportunity to explore new methods and materials for building through a physical prototyping process to demonstrate buildability and functionality for methods that are not quite ready for application at the scale of a building. This territory is prime for students to engage in and develop skills for both advanced digital fabrication and traditional furniture making methodologies while forcing students to also interact with the public either passively or actively. The course will consist of a mix of lectures on precedent projects and industry manufacturing strategies as well as labs for machine demonstration and fabrication experience. The aim of this course is to situate student work in fabrication within a broader public context while integrating larger architectural implications, agendas, and systems. Within this territory students will learn design to fabrication processes, material methodologies, and social strategies for addressing public space making.