The Bring Back 6th Mobile Museum exhibition kicked off on May 15, 2022, during an outdoor street fest organized by Our Streets Minneapolis (OSM). Crafted by six Heritage Studies and Public History students, Jessie Merriam, Ayaan Natala, Jade Ryerson, Hibaa Roba, Angel Swann, and Carrisa Thomas, the exhibition shed light on the once-vibrant Black and Jewish neighborhood along 6th Avenue North that was bulldozed between the 1930s and 1950s to make way for the city’s first highway.
As a playful opportunity to boost creative collaboration among design students, the Kusske Design Initiative (KDI) Cohort developed “Through-Line,” an interactive string installation that surveyed the design processes and learning styles of students at Ralph Rapson Hall and McNeal Hall.
In the fight against cancer, little things can make a huge difference. Cancer Care Foundation MN teamed up with Professor Lucy Dunne’s design class to redesign onesies for infants receiving cancer treatment at Children’s Minnesota. The result? A onesie with pockets for easy access to treatment ports, a small change that has made a big difference in care.
The College of Design is pleased to announce that 12 of its individuals and teams received funding from the University’s 2023 Imagine Fund. These grants support innovative research in the arts, humanities, and design fields. Design faculty and researchers will use the funds for historical investigation and analysis, community-based design, and experimental technology applications.
University of Minnesota students are hungry for interdisciplinary learning experiences that reflect contemporary design practice and tackle the complexity of design in the era of climate change. This was reflected in the unprecedented outpouring of interest in the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2023 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge. Hosted at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), the decathlon invites college students from around the world to design high-performance net-zero energy buildings that simultaneously promote environmental sustainability and social equity.
Every year faculty, instructors, researchers, and students from across the College of Design present their research during the annual Research and Creative Scholarship Showcase. You can learn more about the 2023 presenters and their work in this year’s round-up.
Students in the Product Innovation Lab course partnered with Minnesota-based company Rockler Woodworking and Hardware to design tools and products that make crafting easier for makers and woodworkers with limited space.
Now in its tenth year, the Steelcase Next Design Competition is a national contest for undergraduate students hosted by Steelcase, Inc. This year’s competition was fierce, with more than 1,200 entrants and 77 design programs represented from across the U.S. and Canada. Despite the number of entries, the College of Design had two interior design students named semi-finalists: Addison Cameron and Sarah Olney!
On May 4 and 5, 2023, Landscape Architecture will host capstone presentations for the Master of Landscape Architecture Class of 2023. All presentations will be held in Rapson Hall, Room 225, and are open to the public. This year's guest reviewers are David Rubin, founding principal of DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, and Kelly Homan, assistant professor of landscape architecture at Auburn University.
Three product design projects were awarded grants as part of the MIN-CORPS MVP Challenge! MVP or "Minimum Viable Product" is a tool to show customers and stakeholders how an innovative idea could work, capture feedback, and bring a concept one step closer to reality.
The Lawns to Legumes Program was launched in 2019 as a collaboration of legislators, conservation organizations, and the public to address the rapid loss of Minnesota’s pollinator species. Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources Senior Ecologist and Landscape Architecture Adjunct Instructor Dan Shaw has played a key role in the development of the program, acting as program coordinator.
For many people, appearance or comfort is the most important consideration when choosing a hat to wear. But for people living with Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), an inherited disease that causes an individual to be extremely sensitive to ultraviolet radiation, health and safety must take precedence. As part of her ongoing efforts to raise awareness and support for individuals with XP, Dr. Laura Niedernhofer (College of Biological Sciences) partnered with Professor Lucy Dunne’s (Apparel Design) technical design studio to help design a better hat option for people living with XP.
Investing in North Minneapolis is a collaborative architecture and urban design effort organized by the School of Architecture that reimagines the Northside neighborhood. Over the fall, community youth in the Northside Safety NET program, architecture students and professionals, and Northside residents worked together to infuse the community's values and experiences into thoughtful architecture and urban design.
Graduating graphic design seniors will showcase their senior theses this December in “Graphic Content.” On display in Rapson Hall's HGA Gallery, the exhibition will run from Monday, December 5 to Wednesday, December 14 with a reception on the final date.
A project years in the making, eFargo is an interactive game that teaches users about carbon emissions and helps them reduce energy use in the real world. Developed by a team of faculty and students from the College of Design and North Dakota State University (NDSU), the project was initially created and has subsequently been led by Associate Professor Malini Srivastava (Architecture). The project has won numerous awards, including the highly competitive 2022 R+D Award from Architect Magazine.
From tackling the user experience design of the Metaverse to developing customized pediatric respiratory masks, our faculty are conducting research across the design fields and beyond. This spring, 12 faculty members received grants from the University’s Imagine Fund, which supports innovative research in the arts, humanities, and design fields.
On May 5 and 6, 2022, the Department of Landscape Architecture will host capstone presentations for the Master of Landscape Architecture Class of 2022. Members of the public are invited to attend. View the presentation schedule and learn about the capstones that will be presented below.
Help celebrate our students’ hard work by joining the College of Design community for final reviews, exhibitions, and showcases featuring work from across our design disciplines.
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a physical heart defect that begins in the womb, impacting around 40,000 children born in the U.S. each year. On a mission to improve education for diagnosed children and their families, Drs. Amr El-Bokl and Gurumurthy Hiremath (Department of Pediatrics, UMN Medical School), partnered with product design undergraduate student Levi Skelton and Assistant Professor Carlye Lauff to create a product for teaching children about CHD.
Every year faculty, instructors, researchers, and students from across the College of Design present their research during the annual Research and Creative Scholarship Showcase. You can learn more about the 2022 presenters and their work in this year’s round-up.
The College of Design’s School of Architecture is pleased to announce its 2022 Spring Lecture Series. Featuring practitioners from across the world, this spring’s series is curated by Assistant Professor-in-Practice Gabriel Cuéllar and its theme is “Existing to Remain.”
Keeping goods in a circle of reuse is one of the easiest ways consumers can help reduce waste and save money. But understanding product life cycles and the positive impact of reuse can be daunting for consumers who want to get started. Retail merchandising students in RM 3124: Consumers of Design teamed up with the Hennepin County Choose to Reuse team to research solutions for helping consumers prioritize reuse over purchasing new.
You can’t break something that is already broken. Understanding this piece of wisdom is the first step in the process of repair and part of the foundation for a new freshman seminar in the College of Design, DES 1408: Dare to Repair.
The concept that science can and should be accessible to all is the grounding principle behind the Science Communication Lab at the University of Minnesota. Founded to provide interdisciplinary internship opportunities, the lab has consistently attracted College of Design undergraduate students interested in creating stories or media that make complex research and scientific topics accessible to the general public.
A collaboration between student-group AIAS Freedom by Design and the non-profit Settled has led to a brand new storage shed for the future Settled community at Mosaic Christian Community Church.
Innovation starts with new challenges and fresh perspectives, a concept well known to both the Product Design program and Andersen Corporation. This notion formed the basis of their spring 2021 collaboration when graduating product design seniors worked directly with Andersen Windows and Doors products and professionals to develop solutions for “bringing the outdoors in” as part of their capstone projects.
As the summer winds down so does the typical growing season for Minnesotan gardeners and growers. But not for the five Deep Winter Greenhouses designed by Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR) Research Fellow Daniel Handeen.
Professor Tasoulla Hadjiyanni (Interior Design) has been selected as the Imagine Fund 2021–2023 Arts, Design, and Humanities (ADH) Chair.