Increased Complexity
Any serious use of design context requires the
broadest possible student exposure and occurs at
different scales. By the end of the first semester, we
have the architecture students create a habitable,
freestanding structure. For example, one project
required them to design a festival shelter using a
specific technology (fabric and tensile structures)
for an unfamiliar climate and culture (Native
American) at a remote site (see Figure 6). During
digital design, students also experience different
types (nonrectilinear) of forms, nonuniform rational B-spline surfaces (Nurbs), and image processing and photo superimposition and collage.
Context provides sources of inspiration everywhere. Designers can learn from looking at
precedents in their own narrowly defined field of
study or in the allied arts. The ubiquitous use of
computer graphics has not only crossed disciplinary boundaries but also acted as a catalyst to blur
other lines of distinction. From graphic design to
furniture design, architects, interior designers,
industrial designers, artists, and others perform
overlapping tasks for their clients. The increased
variety of university design programs simultaneously satisfies student and industry demand for
increasingly focused study and allows students in
one design discipline to connect with opportunities and advances in others.
In this milieu, beginning students can be informed by precedents of different scales, with instructors mixing lessons in design with lessons in
structure, form, order, representational graphics,
lighting, and materiality. For example, architecture or interior design students might study a chair
to analytically deconstruct and mine it for design
principles and then apply those principles to design a restaurant or café (see Figure 7). They design
the project digitally using previously learned skills.
However, for this detailed small-scale project, they
now include lighting, materials, and a preliminary
schematic structure, all of which the digital product must represent. (They also learn the difference
between ray tracing and radiosity.) Students study
texture, shadows, light intensity and reflectivity,
color cast, and so on, in the context of their project. The individual projects teach process and methodology, and the breadth of possibilities becomes
evident in the collective presentations.
http://www.aleeshainstitute.com/interior-designing-course.php
When students enter a professional design program, regardless of their skill level, they want to
design whatever object or space they believe is at When students enter a professional design program, regardless of their skill level, they want to
design whatever object or space they believe is at the core of their chosen discipline. For interior
design students, this might be a complex interiorplanning project that lets them deal with space
planning on multiple levels, from small-scale
furniture design to wall-covering design. For architecture students, it’s a free-standing building
(see Figure 8). The building’s particular purpose
doesn’t matter; it could vary from residential to
commercial to institutional.
Whatever the particular program, it’s important
to continue to expose students to new concepts
while providing an opportunity early in their studies to develop various proficiencies—especially in
applying computer graphics to design and presentation. Consequently, these tools will facilitate
rather than hinder their progress as their projects’
complexity grows. Attractive, accessible physical
contexts (such as waterfront sites along the New
Jersey shore) help encourage environmental and
programmatic responsibility and raise the level
of expectation and aspiration for the graphic presentations. It’s reasonable to believe that students
who invest much effort in a project become emotionally attached to, and proud of, their work.
Growing up in an era of high graphic standards
and expectations, they push themselves and each
other to succeed.
Performance Criteria and Expectations
After students complete the first year, they should
be able to select and use the appropriate software
application for a design project. By carefully designing the project, instructors can require students to use at least two different modeling programs to reinforce the concept that they should
use each tool for what it does best and that design
objectives are more important than using any single computer graphics application. Freshman students at NJIT experiment with both polygonal and
Nurbs models, and it isn’t surprising to see them
work with multiple programs open,
■ creating an object in one program for import
into another program,
■ working on that object in a paint program,
■ modifying it in an image-processing application,
and
■ compositing it in yet another application to use
in a presentation.
A systems approach to design is consistent with
the idea of using different applications for different purposes and merging, transferring, and
adapting files as necessary to serve the design. This
also makes the additional layering of buildinginformation-modeling applications easier. The final submission’s appearance should be intentional
rather than be determined by an application’s defaults or proclivities.
The many tasks that advanced students face—from
a detailed investigation of sustainable building materials, to structural design, to construction or manufacturing processes—means that the first year will
include much preparatory work. Although teachers
can’t introduce all computer graphics issues, they
can expect that students will develop facility with
many of the applications they use. Furthermore, a
flexible attitude toward using and changing applications will help them continue to develop.
There are more computer graphics concepts and
skills to be learned than we can present in the
first year. Whereas some students might, out of
personal interest, move forward faster, most fill
any available time working on design projects. Yet
skill-building always has been, and remains, an
important task for beginning students. Exposure
to a variety of issues, skill-building, introduction
to studio culture, and the development of comfort
with iterative processes in both design and image
creation are important objectives in the beginning
of a design program.
When computer graphics is taught in the context of other disciplines, the timetable inevitably
stretches. Furthermore, computer graphics is developing more rapidly than the techniques available
with traditional media have. Changes in materials
and media that used to span multiple decades are
now collapsed into years or even months. New applications and new versions of existing applications
demand continuous learning throughout the academic program. Teaching and learning skills don’t
end in the first or second year.
At NJIT, building information modeling is introduced in the first year, but its power isn’t unleashed
without a parallel understanding of the structure
and materials used in construction. Industrial designers’ solid-modeling tools don’t make complete
sense until students understand manufacturing
processes. Also, although students might begin
to learn how to model a human figure, study and
observation of expression are needed to effectively
communicate emotion. Every design discipline requires additional study of computer graphics after
the initial exposure, and the media used during
design can and do affect the nature of the design.
Nevertheless, there are pedagogical and expedient
reasons to teach computer graphics in the context
of the design environment relevant to the profession using the tools. Although the specific examples I’ve previously described pertain to beginning students, the processes and the integrated
nature of the pedagogy persist throughout the
curriculum.
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