How do we shape our environment, and how does our environment shape us? How do objects influence spaces, and how do spaces influence objects? How does a designed or natural environment impact the ways that people interact with each other, or inform the way that community gets built?  

This program will draw on concepts from woodworking and human-centered design, exploring both theoretical frameworks and hands-on applications. Students with a background in woodworking or human-centered design in a business or entrepreneurial context will have the opportunity to expand their previous coursework or experience in this interdisciplinary class. Students with no prior experience in business or woodworking will learn sufficient foundational skills, and be supported by the learning community, to fully participate in all program material.   

As students study makers and designers and engage in their own processes of fabrication and design, we will consider the role and responsibility of designers. As designers, how do we listen? Who are we responsible and responsive to? How might we practice community-centered design in place of neocolonial individual authorship?  

Throughout the quarter, students will complete creative responses to their physical environment, finding design inspiration around them while also honing observational research skills. An ethnographic research paper around the mid-point of the quarter will invite students to document their findings more formally, and to dive deeper into a specific example of human interaction with designed objects or spaces. The program will culminate in a group project in which students are asked to design and prototype an object or built environment that people can interact with in some capacity. We believe that the woodshop should be respected, but not feared or avoided. This course will familiarize students with the safe use of machines and hand tools through demonstrations and ample hands-on experience. Through this, students will learn fundamental fabrication and construction skills to become more comfortable and confident while creating. 

This program is a great fit for anyone with an interest in woodworking, brick and mortar businesses, community studies, third spaces, or design.   

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Product Design & Prototyping 

4 - Woodworking Theory and Practice