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Course Director: Ioannis Xenakis
Course Code: 4304
Educational Units: 6
ECTS Units: 6
Type: Compulsory (C)
Semester: 04 (Spring)
Hours: 6 hours lab

The 2nd year Design Studio 4 is a laboratory course, the main objective of which is to introduce students to methodological and practical steps towards an understanding of the processes of collaborative design (Studio-Based Learning for Design) following a Project-Based Learning for Design. The course focuses on the production of design knowledge required in the early stages of the design process and especially in the phases of Conceptual Design (conceptualisation phase). Studio IV aims to apply important parts of the design theory (design methodologies: theoretical tools and methods) into a practical use of traditional and new media tools in order to educate students through the development of design products.

Design Studio 4 focuses on the integration of parts of the design theory (design methodologies, theoretical tools/methods), and the usage of traditional and new media in creating new products. The course is intended to provide the following benefits:

  • Competence with a set of tools and methods for conceptual design and development.
  • Enhance team working skills for collaborative design.
  • Awareness of the role of multiple functions in creating a new product
  • Reinforcement of student’s abilities to manage multiple materials and digital tools through the design process.
  • Students will enhance the ability to present and defend their own design ideas.
  • Students will enhance the ability to work in interdisciplinary environments.
  • Enhance students’ ability to self-learning functions so as to adapt in complex ill-defined design problems.

The course gives emphasis on the learning of conceptual tools for the Concept Design and Development and technics for implementing them through the three-dimensional design (3D) using traditional and digital media (clay / paper modelling, maquette development - 3D modelling, texturing and lighting, rendering tools and methods, rapid prototyping). Other objectives of the course are:

  • Methodological design with emphasis on implementation of design objectives,
  • Introduction to design by understanding user’s needs and requirements,
  • Introduction to conceptual design with an emphasis on functionality, usability, aesthetics and workmanship,
  • Representation of design ideas in three dimensions with traditional and new media.
  • Evaluation of design ideas.
  • Students are introduced to the understanding of more complex issues relating to design problem-solving based on the understanding and experience they have gained in earlier design problems in their early years of study, while they are based on state-of-the-art scientific manuals. Also, teaching in design studio 4 involves educational perspectives that arise from modern developments in the methodological problem-solving of products, systems and service design. At the stage of the conceptual design.
  • Students are able to use the design way of thinking, the knowledge and the understanding they have acquired in a way that corresponds to their professional working space. At the same time, they self-develop critical and design skills that are typically demonstrated by developing and supporting design argumentations in the context of solving design problems.
  • Approaching design problems through a methodological perspective, students acquire a further ability to compile and interpret elements within the human-centered design paradigm to develop and then shape a possible range of design choices to address each of the design problems they interact with.
  • Students are able to organize information, present multiple ideas, solutions to design problems for both qualified and non-specialized audiences.
  • The design studio 4 course aims to develop design skills and also to acquire the knowledge that students need in order to cope with design problems of greater complexity in the course of their studies, aiding them to largely develop their design autonomy in multiple design fields.

 

Knowledge: Students gain advanced knowledge in the methodological problem-solving for design and gain a critical understanding of the relevant theoretical paradigms and principles that govern a modern design practice.

Skills: Students acquire advanced skills while gradually acquiring the ability to organize information, to present multiple ideas as solutions to complex and open-ended and ill-defined design problems.

Capabilities: Students, develop further their abilities for a collaborative design, while they are developing advanced skills that enable them to manage complex techniques and projects, where sharing is required to take responsibility for decision-making in uncertain design situations.

- Suggested Bibliography

(Eudoxus repository:):

  • DONALD A. NORMAN (2015). ΣΧΕΔΙΑΣΜΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΝΤΙΚΕΙΜΕΝΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΟΤΗΤΑΣ (ISBN 978-960-461-339-7)
  • ΜΑΡΓΑΡΙΤΑ ΝΙΚΗΤΑ (2012). 3DS MAX 2012: Ο ΦΩΤΟΡΕΑΛΙΣΜΟΣ ΓΡΗΓΟΡΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΠΛΑ

(Other):

  • Jones, J. C. (1992). Design Methods (2nd ed.). USA: John Wiley and Sons.

 

- Related academic journals:

  • Design Issues
  • Design Studies
  • International Journal of Art & Design Education
  • The Design Journal
  • International Journal of Design