MFA Interior Design Studio 3: Healthy Living with Grocery (Fall 2015)

This is a collaborative studio where, MFA Interior Design students worked intensively with their peers in MFA Lighting Design and Master of Architecture at the beginning of the project to establish an understanding of the site, neighborhood, and community in relation to human health. This syllabus was created for the MFA Interior Design cohort.

This graduate level studio focused on issues of health and affordability by focusing on a specific development site as an example. The site was Carmel Place, a pilot study by New York City for micro-housing, Carmel Place offers units with 260-360 sq ft of living space, 14 of which are designated as affordable. The students will study what constitutes a healthy community, home, and individual through an understanding of the food we eat and the food cycle; the materials that surround us and their life cycle; and the impacts of our exposure to unwanted toxins, all within the context of affordability.

Within the interior design component, there were two design projects:
1. an interior of a micro living unit; and,

2. the interior of a public space.

The public space, chosen by the students, lies either within the common space of the apartment building or in an adjacent grocery store designed by their architecture and lighting design peers. A driving factor behind the public space design component was the idea that people residing in small spaces live a large percent of their lives outside of the home.

Assignment 1.0 - Mt. Carmel

1.1 Modeling Mt. Carmel
1.2 Perceiving Mt. Carmel
1.3 Perceiving Health
1.4 Metrics of Mt. Carmel

Assignment 2.0 - Collapsible Object in One Material

Research site, mapping exercises, persona investigations, materials analysis, and palette, lighting research

Individual concept proposal

Assignment 3.0 - Design Proposal -Spatial Proposition

Full-scale detail with safe affordable materials, Collaborative design proposals (4), presentation for stakeholders

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Bobenhausen, Catherine. “Finishing Safe”, Medical Construction & Design 9, issue 3, May/June 2013.

Bonda, Penny, Minchew, Summer, and Sosnowchik, Katie. Chapters 4, 5, 6, and pages: 23, 30 - 31, in Sustainable Commercial Interiors, 2nd Ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2014

Braungart, Michael & McDonough, William. Chapters: 1 + 2 in Cradle To Cradle: Remaking The Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press, 2002.

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Goleman, Daniel. Ecological Intelligence, How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything. New York: Broadway Books, 2009

Guenther, Robin & Vittori, Gail. Chapters: 1 (pages 10-17); 3 (45-60); 5 (p.119-126) in Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, 2nd Ed. Hoboken, New Jersey:John Wiley and Son, 2013

Hamblin, James. “The Toxins that Threaten the Brain”, Atlantic Monthly. March 18, 2014

McKlennan, Jason. The Philosophy of Sustainable Design. Bainbridge, Washington: Ecotone Publishing, 2004.

McMorrough, Julia. The Architecture Reference & Specification Book: Everything Architects Need to Know Everyday. Beverly, MA: Rockport, 2013)

Manzini, Ezio. Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press 2015

Smith, Rick & Lourie, Bruce. Slow Death by Rubber Duck, The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2009)

Williams, Jeremy. The One Room Manifesto. (Latvia: Inprint, 2011). [a designer’s self-published manifesto]

References

Various authors, Chicago Tribune Investigative Series about Flame Retardants, 2012-2014 http://articles.chicagotribune…

Resources

Pharos: Material chemical makeup database: http://www.pharosproject.net

Cradle 2 Cradle: http://www.c2ccertified.org/

Green Spec:Database of Green Building Products http://www.greenspec.buildingg…

Transparency List: Transparency.perkinswill.com

Six Classes of Chemicals (to avoid) www.sixclasses.org