Team Urban Design Studio

This new class offers an exciting variation on the 'individual project' studio format. Students work as a team to propose a single consensus solution to a real-world design challenge. This collaborative studio experience more closely reflects the creative process in the design and planning professions where a group of individuals works together to brainstorm, shape, develop, and illustrate a community design solution. There are a number of benefits to this team-oriented approach: it is a more nurturing environment for students that do not have design backgrounds, it allows for more peer-to-peer learning, and it takes best advantage of varied student skill sets. But perhaps the greatest benefit is that a team of students working together on a common project will be able to develop a more comprehensive solution than any one student working alone. This means that the class "deliverable" at the end of quarter could be detailed enough to be of significant value to a stakeholder or client group from the larger community. This studio class, working under the guidance of an experienced instructor, functions like a design firm in providing professional-grade deliverables to real-world community design "clients'.