STUDENT WORK
Courses focused on Architecture and the Environment, Bio-Tech and Engineering, and Sustainable Fashion are designed to help students develop skills to think creatively, effectively lead situations, and navigate interpersonal experiences more easily, preparing you for college, your career, and beyond. Students will create a portfolio of two to three designs based on knowledge gained in the program and will present their work on the last day of class.
Architecture and the Environment
Positing cities and other environments as virtual laboratories, student projects were based on the hypothesis that in the future, buildings will come to be self-sufficient in their critical necessities. Students heard from and were in dialogue with architects, educators, designers and inventors, as they explored how architecture is adapting to address current environmental changes and challenges. Working with living materials in their home studio, students conceived of and fabricated iterative prototypes of built environments, presenting these models as well as a small portfolio charting the journey from idea to actualization.
Biodesign and Engineering
Experimenting at the intersection between design and engineering, students incorporated a variety of living organisms as essential components in creating and augmenting their finished works. Students heard from and were in dialogue with designers and inventors about recent advances in biotechnology, both in theory and in practice, through a series of lectures, virtual tours, and hands-on workshops. Utilizing live tissues, bacteria, tree grafting, and fungi growth, students reconceptualized design as a form of focused scientific endeavor, culminating in the development of a small portfolio of material explorations.
Sustainable Fashion and Materials
Students learned about exciting innovations in the fashion industry, got hands-on experience in the design and creation of sustainable fashion wear, and examined how fashion technology impacts climate change. They met with fashion entrepreneurs who introduced new material technologies and innovations from seaweed fiber, grape and mushroom Leather, and growing new materials from bacteria and algae and explained how they came to begin their start-ups, thus giving students insight into forward-thinking commercial endeavors.
This was such a fun program and we loved watching our daughter's project evolve as well as learning through her. And honestly -- all of this gives us so much hope for the future, which is worth a lot!
Lana H
Parent of Summer Studio 2021 Session 2&3 student
Caroline thoroughly enjoyed the class. She had a great time with the final project – she had all kinds of molds in the kitchen to create her structure and had grass growing in the living room by the window! All in all, such a terrific experience.
Lisa C
Parent of Summer Studio 2021 Session 2&3 student