Subject Description:
In 2.00C/1.016/EC.746, “Design for Complex Environmental Issues,” you and a small team of Terrascope classmates will engage in projects that address some aspect of the environmental issue that Terrascope has been exploring throughout the year. You and your team will engage with real clients, learn their needs and priorities, and in consultation with them design, prototype and fabricate solutions. As in all of Terrascope, the focus is on working in teams to accomplish challenging tasks, and you and your teammates will have great freedom to determine the scope, emphasis and content of your work.
At the end of the semester, the teams join together in a large, public space to create a unique Bazaar of Ideas, a festive gathering in which you can show off the work you have done, both to the MIT community at large and to an expert panel invited specifically for the event. Individual teams design and construct working devices, prototypes, models or demonstrations, which they use (along with more conventional text/graphic panels and other displays) in presenting their work to attendees. The class as a whole constructs a physical setting and layout for the space, designed both to attract and inform visitors and to provide the best possible intellectual backdrop for the work they are presenting. Along the way, you will learn crucial techniques in brainstorming, design development, prototyping, construction and presentation.