A detail shot of the V Shape play structure designed in the Design Through Prototype studio.

Testing one of the play spaces during the final review of the Design Through Prototype studio.

A rendering of the Twister play structure designed in the Design Through Prototype studio. The projects underwent a process of iterative making before groups settled on the final design.

A closer shot of the Hole Lotta play structure designed in the Design Through Prototype studio.

The assembled play structures were installed on Vol Walker Lawn before the Design Through Prototype studio final review.

Testing the Twister play structure designed during the Design Through Prototype studio.

Students spent the semester prototyping with real materials during the Design Through Prototype studio.

A detail shot of the V Shape play structure designed in the Design Through Prototype studio. The projects underwent a process of iterative making before groups settled on the final design.

A detail shot of the Twister play structure designed in the Design Through Prototype studio.

Assembling one of the play spaces designed during the Design Through Prototype studio.

Design Through Prototype

Spring 2019

Discipline: Architecture / Interior Design
Year Level: Advanced Interdisciplinary

Professor(s):

Emily Baker, Assistant Professor of Architecture

Description:

This studio focused on the design and fabrication of pieces for a shaded play area to be integrated into the outdoor space at the Scott Family Amazeum, a dynamic children's museum for learning and exploration in Bentonville, Arkansas. The studio allowed students to turn the typical progression of design upside down – moving from physical object toward comprehensive design in a process of iterative making. Prototyping with real materials began with the start of semester. Through hands-on engagement with materials, students developed material systems with their own craft language and choreography of assembly. This evolution of a material system progressed concurrently to site studies and conversations with the clients, children, and staff at the Amazeum.

This studio fostered work at the intersection of digital techniques for construction and intuitive hand craft, as sophisticated digital design does not have to begin inside of the computer. Rather, the capabilities of digital material manipulation can infuse a process of embodied learning through making, allowing students to access a deeper and more targeted mode of engagement with digital tools.

Students produced a comprehensive design for the shaded play space along with refined prototypes of the design that accounted for structural stability, quality of finishes, buildability, choreography of assembly, streamlining for cost and construction time, etc.