Please tour the public galleries on display in the lobbies of the Broad Institute and the Koch Institute, which face one another across Main Street on the MIT campus. Then write brief notes (2–3 pages) that critically compare and contrast the approaches to exhibiting science of these two galleries.
On the first day of class, each student will sign up for one week of the course’s readings that are of interest, to relate the day’s readings to a current event and to facilitate a 20-minute discussion about the assigned material.
Review both the national and international media to find a story that affects your D-Lab project country. Some sectors that might be of interest include: the environment, health and sanitation, agriculture, energy, education, humanitarian disaster, politics, economics and information technology. Each person on your D-Lab country team should select a different topic. Write a 2-page summary of the story making sure to comment on its implications for the nation, your D-Lab trip or another affected group. Make sure to properly cite all your sources.
In this assignment you will start working in groups on your final course project which is the development of an environmental design concept for an about 3500m2 innovation/startup space located in either Chicago, Houston or Seattle, depending on which city you previously signed up for. Your building should accommodate work spaces for around 250 workers, a reception area, lavatory, two seminar rooms and a cafe (optional). It is up to you to define the final program. You may pick any available site within your city and should also consider external factors such as a site’s walkscore etc. Remember to include neighboring buildings in your shading and daylighting analysis. The goal of this first assignment is to develop and evaluate a series of massing options and façade designs that you will then further refine in future assignments.
When designing a product that is to be produced beyond just the prototype stage, attention must be given to the resources that are available and to the sustainability of the manufacturing processes.
As a team, determine the appropriate scale of manufacturing for your project: will they be made in the tens, hundreds, or millions? What design changes will need to be made as you shift from manufacture of a single prototype to the production of multiple units?
Consider the objects and products you encounter every day while at MIT—all of these were designed. When looking at a design, it’s important to be critical, but in a constructive manner. It’s also important to recognize that there are very few instances where a design is totally great or totally terrible; there are typically good parts of a poor design, and vice versa.
Take a picture of two very different objects or products, one that you believe is a relatively bad design, and one that is a relatively good design. Discuss the pros and cons of each design, and why you have come to your overall “good” or “bad” conclusion. Also discuss what trade-offs and constraints the designers likely faced in developing these products, and how these challenges were managed.
During assignment 1 you determined how much electricity you have used at some point in your life living in an apartment or house. In this assignment you are going to design a PV system that yields the same amount of electricity over the course of a year and calculate the simple payback time required to get your investment back. The assignment is broken into three parts.
Students will explore and analyze a mitigation plan in a U.S. city or town.
What is your town’s Mitigation Plan?
Decide on a town to research. We prefer that you use your hometown, if possible. As someone from the town, you will better understand town dynamics, town threats, town government, and maybe even town politics.
Find a copy of your town’s mitigation plan, if there is one, and analyze the plan.
