Architecture as Catalyst: Old-School Toys, New-School Tools

The Weisman Art Museum (WAM) charged the students in this Catalyst studio to design and prototype a small, simple desktop 3D block puzzle toy of the museum to be mass-produced and sold in the WAM gift store. Students were placed into small teams to develop three different variations on the theme: a plastic injection design, a flat-pack design, and a traditional wooden design. The students followed a highly compressed version of a product design process taught in PDES 3711/5711 Toy Product Design. The project began with surveying, abstracting and sketching an existing building. The students used tools in the Digital Fabrication Lab including the laser cutters, 3D-printers, and CNC router to prototype a series of iterations. In the process, students were advised by WAM store manager, Marissa Onheiber and project manager of the WAM extension, Robert Good of HGA.