Good Design Matters.

✅ Week 1 - How’re y’all feeling? ...

Today we kicked off the new Duda Visiting Designer Program with @massdesigngroup.

The two-week program challenges architecture and landscape architecture students to reimagine how we design sites of memory and justice within Black communities throughout NC.

This studio will explore NC’s complex history through the lens of racial justice, from the era of slavery to now.

Worldwide, memory and history in built form—memorials, monuments, museums, street names, plaques, historic preservation markers—carry a responsibility to communicate complex histories and provide spaces for healing.

The construction of public memory lends weight to particular narratives, bringing us to ask:

Who or what is deemed important? Whose voices are we hearing, and who is left out?

The goal of this new, special program is to answer these questions - then design the project approach, narrative, and ultimately a solution.

Teams will address these challenges and design memorials at three specific sites throughout NC:

📍 An extension of the Riverwalk in Wilmington which honors those who were enslaved.
📍 A tribute to desegregation on the site of the Royal Ice Cream Parlor in Durham.
📍 A new memorial at the North Carolina State Capitol designed to replace the previously standing confederate monuments.

We’re looking forward to seeing the ideas, conversations and designs our students bring to the table over the next two weeks.

This opportunity would not exist without the professional guidance of MASS, and the financial support of Turan and Linda Duda. ...

Today, the magic starts.
#FDOC ...

Throughout her career teaching design at home and abroad, there was one thing that stuck out to Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel – most of the concepts taught in classrooms across the world stemmed from a European perspective.

“When we think about design, maybe we think about Bauhaus. Maybe we think about people from California. Maybe we think about New York,” says Noel.

“I want to make sure that students understand that design is practiced in a lot of places, and design can be done in a lot of different ways.”

Now, as an assistant professor in the COD's Art + Design department, she's working to change the way designers approach race, bias and identity in classrooms and workplaces across the nation.

Read "From A-to-Z: Lesley-Ann Noel and Decolonizing Design" - link in bio ...

🗣 The College of Design is thrilled to announce the addition of a new degree program to the School of Architecture!

The Master of Advanced Architectural Studies (MAAS) provides opportunities for specialized study in leading-edge areas of the built environment, and a platform to explore solutions to the crucial issues of the 21st century.

MAAS is a flexible, self-directed, and individualized program that provides students with opportunities to engage in specialized studies. Students in the MAAS program work closely with a faculty advisor with expertise in their area of study during the duration of their program.

Students can work in one of the school’s four primary focus areas:

🏘 City Design
⚡ Energy and Technology
🏛 History and Theory
👪 Public Interest Design

Students can also work with faculty in other specialized areas.

MAAS is for students who have earned a professional degree in architecture, or a degree in a related discipline. According to Program Coordinator Thomas Barrie, FAIA, “MAAS is designed to be completed in two to three semesters, but students can accelerate completion by using credits from previous degree programs.” Teaching and research assistantships are available on a competitive basis.

For more information and how to apply, visit the link in our bio! ...

It's 2022 and we're flippin' beautiful. ...

Let's light 2022 Red, Wolfpack.

Happy New Year! 🎉🎊 ...

Prasad Joshi is a 2018 graduate from the Master of Industrial Design program at the College of Design, and was recently awarded a patent along with fellow student Charity Kirk for their work on a bassinet design.

The design initially started as a project in Associate Dean Sharon Joines‘ studio course which invited collaborators from UNC’s School of Medicine as well as new mothers to provide critical perspectives on how the specialized bed for newborns can be improved.

Joshi shared his experiences with applying an interdisciplinary approach to a new design, the importance of collaboration and how a student project became a patented product.

Full story in bio. ...

“We hope that this book will allow designers and stakeholders in the industry to engage more meaningfully with issues of health. Architects aren’t trained in the realm of health or health strategies, and while there are organizations outlining standards and thresholds, it’s been really difficult for design professionals to internalize these concepts. We hope this book will help with both understanding and implementation.”

- Assistant Professor of Architecture, Traci Rose Rider on her new book, "Building for Well-Being."

Read the full story: Link in bio! ...

On a sunny October day, first-year students from the North Carolina State University College of Design turned the courtyard into an outdoor runway. Known as the Paper Wearables Parade, students modeled wings, horns, exoskeletons, Elizabethan ruffs, spikes, armor, and veils — all created from simple white paper (with a few old WALTER magazines mixed in).

The event marked the culmination of a six-week interdisciplinary studio intensive course for first-year design students aimed to spark creativity and challenge their approach to critical thinking. “White paper is the primary tool, but they can do anything with that as a raw material,” says Sara Queen, the director of undergraduate programs and curriculum coordinator. “Anything is open — casting, molding, folding, sewing, ripping, burning — as long as they use this material.”

Check out the full article recently published by @waltermagazine on the COD's First Year Experience program: link in bio 🔗 📎 ...

We probably don't look like this right now, but we definitely wish you a Merry Christmas 🎄 🐺 ...