2010-13

Carnegie Mellon University

At Carnegie Mellon University we developed a range of 6 new classes and studios. Here are a few of them.

Loops

This was our first studio with final year Seniors, and took contemporary themes and made design responses through fictions, proposed services and commentaries. It was our introduction to CMU design students and what they were and were not comfortable with.

PGH Digital City

We’ve been able to develop new teaching areas, such as Pittsburgh as a Digital City, a grad studion, based on amplifying the assets of specific neighbourhoods through internet of things kinds of products and services. We asked them to read the city – research a specific neighborhood; dream the city – imagine the kinds of futures that might be possible given their imaginations and future technologies; then to experiment, and then to tell the story of their particular idea.

We invited special guests including John Thackara, Timon Botez, Chris Paccione and Rachel Abrams.

 

We brought a new format of Labs to the School of Design to promote more exploratory education styles alongside core, seminar and studio formats.

Tinkerlab


A class on digital making based on recovery of parts and bringing them into new life.

HappyLab


This was a more experimental lab used a design lens to explore Happiness, and a dedicated group of students worked their way through happiness theoretical frameworks into a range of designed happiness experiments, documented through a final book.

You can get the book and ebook here.
Here is the film of the HappyLab and more on our work on happiness here.

HappyLab from Gill Wildman on Vimeo.

StrategyLab


This class explored the mechanics of design strategy and then put them into practice on a commercial company or not for profit. Over the three times it ran, it became an increasingly popular elective which explored design strategy for the first time at CMU.

Here is the StrategyLab site and specifically the third group of people and their work.

 

Rethinking programmes

We worked with the Faculty on rethinking the Graduate programme in terms of what would be needed for the near and longer term future. We co-designed and taught on three new agility labs for the undergrad Senior year – a suite of labs on the themes of Wonder(designing research probes), Play (prototyping to discover) and Speak (creating arguments) aimed at preparing them for their final project.

Play Lab


Co-developed with Steve Stadelmeier, faculty CMU School of Design.

Wonderlab


Co-developed with Kristin Hughes, faculty CMU School of Design.