A studio in which students develop a small number of useful design tools implemented in visual basic for Rhino. These tools will then be utilized in a short design charrette to demonstrate their functionality and the resultant designer’s empowerment. Deliverables for each student will be two fold: a simple, robust and scripted tool as well as a documented design project that utilizes this technique. The project and the student’s tools will be compiled on a course website.
An important goal of the course is to develop a functioning online toolbox for the students and the rest of the department. The toolbox should provide a number of useful codes, techniques and computational strategies developed by students for students.
This course seeks to pose four main questions: 1. Are we developing Only tools, or can they become more? 2. When do tools become part of the design and the designer part of the tool? 3. Can tools be a means to empower designers to become more than technicians? 4. What are important and fundamental tools for current design students/professionals?
Inevitably design and tools are caught in a cyclical paradigm: one where tools influence design possibilities and inversely we catalyze the design of new tools to address ever-changing design needs. Thus the tool’s inevitable importance lies solely in the application and its user.