DID 2023 Students Exemplify Joyful Exuberance in Final, Vibrant Exhibition
This summer the halls of SCI-Arc were alive once again with the rhythm and hum of excitement of young individuals learning the thrilling potential of architecture and design. In July of 2023, Design Immersion Days participants followed up an action-packed four weeks of workshops, field trips, and hands-on instruction by SCI-Arc faculty to produce an eye-popping feast of stellar creative projects, installed throughout the school.
SCI-Arc has developed Design Immersion Days (DID) to introduce high school students to architecture and design in a brief but broad curriculum, offering them the opportunity to explore careers in these fields or satisfy deep curiosities about how products, buildings, and environments are designed and made. DID, which recently celebrated its 12th anniversary, is predicated on the notion that design permeates our everyday existence and teaches rising high school juniors and seniors to engage in the tools and techniques that shape the objects, media, furniture, and spaces that form our collective reality. The program culminates in a one-day comprehensive portfolio workshop and exhibition, tailored to introduce beginning design students to the concepts, production, and strategies necessary to complete a successful creative portfolio.
"This year we set out to create a curriculum that would challenge students to demonstrate how architecture can be defined and define reality in multiple ways,” explains DID Program Coordinator Angelica Lorenzi. “Dealing with a discipline that spans in so many directions, the main goal was to show that architecture can become a tool to awaken the creativity that is innate in each of us. In just four weeks, the DID students had the opportunity to create physical, digital, and sound spaces, using a variety of different techniques and tools for each project.”
In alignment with SCI-Arc’s renowned Visual Studies curriculum in its undergraduate and graduate programs, DID introduces students to a range of basic skills essential to exploring, discovering, and describing design work. The coursework covers freehand sketching, mechanical drafting, computer drawing, physical model making, and computer-based 3D modeling. Students in DID learn processes and workflows that will allow them to move freely between physical and virtual realms.
Creating projects that range from building inflatable sculptures to 3D digital animations to designing “gentle monsters,” DID students are able to engage fundamental ways of seeing, thinking, and doing that are essential for anyone interested in pursuing a degree and/or career in architecture or design, all while making connections with one another that last a lifetime.
"As program coordinator, it was great to witness the enthusiasm and energy that the students brought every single day. That same energy shaped one of the most incredible DID shows ever. A true explosion of fresh ideas, shapes, materials, and colors,” says Lorenzi. “Regardless of your interests and the things you enjoy, you will always find something in DID that is right for you.”
Learn more about or apply to Design Immersion Days.
