4.100 Architecture Workshop: Fabricating Function - Lumos MaximaUnits: 0 - 3 - 0Level: Open to Undergrduates - Preference to FreshmanSchedule: TR 1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (7 - 434)

(illumination? Instructor: Paul Pettigrew paulpett@mit.edu)

source that modifies your experience of an architectural space.

Lumos Maxima begins with a “kit of parts”, i.e. a bluetooth enabled color LED bulb, a programmable app for

manipulating emitted light and a pendant light cord that powers/connects cord & bulb to materials that simulta-

neously house the light source, distribute light & transform space.

Lumos Maxima is an opportunity to design and fabricate a light

IAP 2017

COURSE/PROJECT DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVES:

Lumos Maxima will be a study of “unnatural” lighting’s history from paleolithic oil lamps to solar powered net-worked LED \systems. Unnatural light will be studied as it relates to architectural history and the ways that oil lamps, candles, fireplaces and light bulbs have changed the way we live and work. Lumos Maxima is fundamentally about the historic interplay between technology, people and design.

Lumos Maxima will be about research, testing, and experimentation intertwined and grounded in critical contempo-rary questions which require knowledge of the past and present as well as insights into the future. Lumos Maxima will be an opporutnity for students to begin to study the environment as a cultural, technological, social, and ecologi-cal condition in which design is as much about answering questions as it is about solving problems.

Lumos Maxima explores the relationship between science and engineering through the lens of Design. It examines how transformations in science and technology have influenced design thinking, and vice versa. It offers interdisci-plinary tools and methods to represent, model, design and fabricate objects that alter the way we live and work.

Lumos Maxima participants will acquire the elemental skills necessary to research, conceptualize, represent, de-velop, and fabricate a design solution to a real world problem.

Lumos Maxima is an opportunity to discover the relationship between mind & hand. Observations, research and functioning prototypes will be experienced as evidence to support the thesis that physically making an idea from concept to functional object is a unique and critical experience in the education of students in general and Design students in particular.

EVALUATION CRITERIA/GRADING DEFINITION

Class participation will include both bringing your assignments to class and working in class. Since we will only meet 8 times, attendance is essential for completing a functioning design in the 42 hours allotted.

Criteria will include: How clearly you articulate both orally and physically your design intentions, how well you use your concept to develop a design response that changes our perception of a particular architectural space, is your design response a logical conclusion to your process, is there evidence of skill, craft and clarity in your final repre-sentation both as drawing and functioning prototype.

Grading Definition: http://web.mit.edu/catalog/overv.chap5.html#ap

LAB FEES:

A lab fee of $60.00/student will cover the cost of the bulb, cord and a sheet of acrylic. Additional costs for materials necessary to complete a working prototype of your design will be at the descretion of the individual student.

FINAL STUDIO DELIVERABLES:

Grades will not be posted for students to view on their grade report until their work has been archived. The projects need to be properly prepared and formatted, and delivered to the Archiving TA. Studio TA’s will collect project archives from each student immediately following the review. Detailed requirements and instructions for formatting will be posted to CRON, the Department website, and sent to students at the beginning of the semester.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY + HONESTY:

http://studentlife.mit.edu/sites/default/files/Academic%20Integrity%20Resources_1.pdf

MIT’s expectations and policies regarding academic integrity should be read carefully and adhered to diligently: http://integrity.mit.edu

4.100 Architecture Workshop: Fabricating Function - Lumos Maximus

Tuesday 01.10.17 Lectures: 1. Unnatural Light...A Short History, 2. Ambient, Task & Decorative...Unnatural Light’s 3 Personalities, 3. Photo Collage as Spatial Study & Documentation

Lab: Drawing and Making Tools for Drawing and Making: Introduction to Rhino 3d for both representation and fabrication, Introduction to laser/material investigation, i.e. cutting acrylic

Assignment: 1. On an 11x17 landscape formatted sheet of paper, assemble a photo collage that documents the architectural space for which you will be designing and fabricating your unnatural light source. Your photo collage should show/include all of your existing unnatural light sources in their existing locations, forms &/or functions. 2. Think about whether you’d like to be an inventor or a tweaker? (See reading below)

Optional Reading: The Tweaker, Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, November 14, 2011

Lecture: 1. Sketching: Analysis vs. Documentation, 2. Speculative Everything: Conceptual design as a critical medium for exploring the implications of new developments in science/technology, aesthetics of crafted design, and design as a catalyst for social dreaming

Lab: 1. Introduction to sketching as a method for moving ideas from the mind through the hand. Sketching as both a physical drawing and physical modeling technique. 2. Physical modeling technique/demonstration/material investigation, i.e. cutting and glueing cardboard

Assignment: Use sketching (drawing & modeling) to explore initial concepts for an unnatu-ral light source. Use the A & B lists from Speculative Everything to identify your “manifes-to”. If you don’t see your manifesto in list A or B then create your own, i.e. list “C”.

Optional Reading: Speculative Everything, Dunne & Raby,

Thursday 01.12.17

Lecture: Design Processes as Case Studies: Introduction to Design as a process or se-quence of events moving from concept, sketch drawing/model, drawing/fabrication drawing, through prototype fabrication, analysis & iteration

Lab: 1. Introduction to Rhino 3D as a drawing, design development, documentation & fab-rication tool. 2. Physical modeling technique/demonstration/material investigation, i.e. laser cutting cardboard/methods for assembling corrugated cardboard components/parts

Assignment: Translate your initial concept sketches/models into a Rhino 3D model. Your Rhino 3D model should be drawn as a collection of laser cut 3D components to be reas-sembled into a full scale mock-up of your light source. Assemble components in such a way as to allow for their being cut from an 18” x 32” sheet(s) of corrugated cardboard.

Tuesday 01.17.17

Lecture: The Art of Assemblage... “All material has its own history built into it. There is no such thing as ‘better’ material. It’s just as unnatural for people to use oil paint as it is to use anything else. An artist manufactures his material out of his own existence, his own igno-rance, familiarity or confidence.” Robert Rauschenberg, Barbara Rose, An Interview with Robert Rauschenberg, NY, Vintage, 1987, p. 58

Lab: Exploring the (conceptual) limits of what Rhino 3D, laser cutters & CNC machines can do/provide as part of the design, fabrication and iteration process. Methods for CNC cut-ting and assembling plywood components.

Assignment: What if glue was not an option?...In your Rhino 3D model and/or your physi-cal model made up of cardboard/plywood components explore a variety of assembly meth-ods and their relationship to your original idea/concept

Thursday 01.19.17

Lab: 1 on 1 Reviews/conversations

Assignment: Continue the process of fabricating your final project components & testing their assemblies.

Thursday 01.26.17

Lab: 1 on 1 reviews/conversations

Assignment: 1. Finish! 2. Recreate your original photo collage this time with your light source included in such a way as to describe how it modifies your experience of an architec-tural space.

Tuesday 01.31.17

Lab: Group Review, demonstration & Design Light celebrationThursday 02.02.17

Lecture: 1. Designers Designing Light...a few important case studies.

Lab: 1. “Analog” Shop Tools...So how did we make stuff before there were lasers, CNC machines, plasma cutters and robotic arms?

Assignment: Begin the process of fabricating your final project components & testing their assemblies.

Tuesday 01.24.17