Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Industrial Design

Department

Industrial Design

First Advisor

Paolo Cardini

Second Advisor

Ben Jurgensen

Third Advisor

Louise Manfredi

Abstract

Designed Impermanence: Transformative Shapeshifting, A Decoded Alchemical Inquiry is a methodological deconstruction of our relationship to the built environment.

Our present existence is governed by craft and material hierarchies, conformed perceptions, and socioeconomic contextual drivers. Recognizing these tendencies, formats, and desires are critical in order to construct proposed introductions to re-envision alternative methods of building future realities. Redesigning new parameters through shifting physical configurations serve as indexes for visual propositions to redefine our existence through perceptions of time, adaptation, and materiality.

This research is centered around four themes: material craft ecology, adaptive alchemical constructions, reactionary behavioral assemblies, and evolving responsive systems. Through experimentation and research, these are synthesized to challenge our sensemaking by building contextual linkages that illuminate how our current methodologies create forces that commingle under invisible tension in our changing environment. Passive indicators of heat, humidity, and time acted as agents metamorphosing the methodologies while maintaining evolving relevance. This strain and agency to formations symbolically provokes shifts in our understanding, and attunement in our perceptions of change by providing space for contemplation.

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