48-531 Fabricating Customization: Prototype

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course explores design thinking via 1:1 fabrication and is premised on the understanding that making and building are as fundamental to the discipline of architecture as drawing and drafting. Over the semester, students will work individually to prototype a series of architecturally inspired objects, fixtures, elements, games, and/or devices, drawing on the full breadth of CMU's fabrication resources, including the digital fabrication laboratory and wood shop. Learning objectives will hone in on iterative prototyping as a primary mode of inquiry, using familiar industrial design objects (coffee mugs, kites, etc.) as proxies for buildings to better understand how architecture responds to external environmental stimuli (heat gain/loss, aerodynamics, acoustics, etc.). Class activities will involve (1) making and (2) using as equally important and mutually beneficial endeavors—prioritizing the activation and use of objects as much as their production, and in doing so, reinforcing a view of architecture as embedded in and inseparable from its environment.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Fall 2025

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