Several years ago, while teaching at Arizona State University, I taught a third year design studio that focused on critical making as a primary means of generating design. The studio followed two tracks that were taken on concurrently by the students. The first track was very typical for an undergraduate studio: case study, program and site analysis, context study, and a building design problem of a small community arts center. The second track, however, asked the students to work through a series of exercises designing 16″x16″x16″ cubes. Through the design of these constructions, the students generated conceptual design ideas that filtered over to the design of the building in the first track. In this studio, detail was the generator of design.
CJS 