Master's Degree in Innovative Space Design

Module 2 – Concepts and parameters that determine an interior

Focused on covering the basic concepts associated with healthy environment design and determining all the fundamental parameters that must be considered along with their maximal values.

Introduction

Current spatial design, paths and trends. Health and wellbeing, the design of healthy environments.

Human physiology

People and their surroundings. The human body’s needs and processes with regard to its environment, the major current afflictions.

Habitats

Covering all the various historical residential typologies, and their characteristics in relation to their context. The major changes in the characteristics of residential spaces until the present day.

Environmental evolution

Principle conditions of the human environment, modification and evolution over time. Climate change, pollution.

Environment

Detailed coverage of the main environmental parameters affecting public well-being. Analysis of studies and research on these parameters. Methods for measurement and analysis, threshold limits, modifying factors, temperature, humidity, air ionisation, CO2.

Toxicity

Detailed coverage of the main toxicity parameters affecting public well-being. Analysis of studies and research on these parameters. Methods for measurement and analysis, threshold limits, modifying factors, chemicals, VOCs, PAHs, particles and fibres, permethrins, formaldehyde.

Radiation

Detailed coverage of the main radiation parameters affecting public well-being. Analysis of studies and research on these parameters. Methods for measurement and analysis, threshold limits, modifying factors, alternating electric fields, continuous electric fields, alternating magnetic fields, continuous magnetic fields, electromagnetic waves, radioactivity, geological disturbances, light.

Other factors

Detailed coverage of the main parameters that affect public well-being but are not associated with environmental, toxicity or radiation factors. Analysis of studies and research on these parameters. Methods for measurement and analysis, limit thresholds, modifying factors.

Module 3 – Design strategies for achieving healthy environments

A training module covering the various potential strategies for achieving healthier environments, taking into consideration the parameters from the previous module.

General strategies

Spatial design, colours, insulation, orientation, air flow, waterproofing.

Material strategies

Healthy materials, labelling, traditional materials, coverings, paints.

Strategies for installations

Electrical, climate-control and lighting installations. Equipment.

Module 4 – Project-based workshops

This module focuses on the practice of design in two respects: firstly, the analysis of unique cases or those that serve as examples of part or the entirety of the aspects covered by this Speciality, and secondly, by holding project workshops on specific themes including the application of the concepts covered.

Case studies

Analysis of real projects involving the application of the principles covered in module 3.

Projects

An interconnected overview of the course content based on projects.

Module 2 – Active theory of the scenographic space

This module presents a spectrum of theoretical, instrumental and contextual knowledge of the scenographic space while integrating conceptual reflections alongside aesthetic, technical and creative references from a range of disciplines such as architecture, art, philosophy and/or technology. It also provides an introduction to the world of managing and producing stage projects from professionals within the sector.

Fundamentals of scenographic design

A critical overview of some of the most significant artistic phenomena and stage languages from the last century to the present day, which aims to reflect on contemporary themes such as the role of the spectator, spatial perception and creating atmospheres.

Managing and producing stage projects

Identification of the various stages of a scenographic project, with an emphasis on professional relationships, the participating agents, and understanding forms of distribution and communication.
 

Module 3 – Tools, strategies and techniques

This module concentrates on the integration of digital tools in the mise en scène as an expressive and narrative resource, as well as the use of advanced software, models and prototypes as tools for the representation and communication of a project. At the same time, it provides an in-depth examination of the techniques and materials involved in the field of ephemeral structures.

Image and space laboratory

The immersive visual experience is developed through visual prototypes of real architectures, objects, bodies, etc. An introduction to programming oriented towards interaction with space.

Three-dimensional representation laboratory

Advanced 3D visualisation, working with models and prototypes for the scenographic project.

Techniques laboratory: manufacturing and construction of ephemeral spaces

An exploration of techniques for the display and assembly of ephemeral spaces, graphics applied to ephemeral spaces, and innovative materials for ephemeral constructions.

Module 4 – Project-based workshops

In this module, the focus is placed on the project-based praxis through workshops devoted to addressing the various components of the scenographic space in a specific and cross-disciplinary manner.

Workshop I: Scenic lighting

Developing the concepts around lighting technology that are required to integrate and exploit the transformative potential of light for creating atmospheres.

Workshop II: Sound and spatial design

An exploration of the ability of sound to create spatiality through sonic artefacts/sculptures and the acoustic resonance of our bodies and the space around us.

Workshop III: Spatial narrative

Delving into narrative work with particular emphasis on the temporal dimension inherent to scenographic spaces.

Workshop IV: Scenic device

Cross-disciplinary and multi-scale work, from the object-based to the spatial.

Module 2 – Critical analysis of context. Tools and operational theory

In the current context of design, the discipline’s once impenetrable borders are being blurred by holistic approaches atypical of product design.

Product and context: design materialisms and politics

In contemporary contexts, mastering and employing specific theoretical knowledge of product design is essential as a basic tool for positioning and activating innovative practices. Knowledge of the various materialisms (historical, material cultures and new materialisms), the relationship between politics and design, and the relationship between body and product (regulations, effects and affects) will be developed.

Space workshop

The availability of tools for the critical interpretation of context is considered key: conflicts, opportunities, situations and catalysts with which to position product design practices. This block will address cartographies, ethnographies and the design of test objects as functional tools with which to connect and activate products in contemporary scenarios.

Module 3 – Tools and strategies for manufacturing and prototyping. Advanced design and practical materials workshops

Advanced 3D software

When designing, prototyping and manufacturing products in the current digital landscape, it is essential to understand and master tools for drawing, analysing and editing that enable the use of advanced CAD software for the creation, editing and analysis of NURBS curves and surfaces for freeform 3D modelling and the use of graphic algorithm editors to operate with parametric design.

Material practice workshops

The product design-related material practices on which the Speciality of this master's degree is based demand a new description of the technologies with which they operate. Digital manufacturing, which in product design education is commonly only thought of as a tool for prototyping and verification, already represents a real way to produce things, both aesthetically and politically. Artisanal manufacturing, the predecessor of design associated with industrial production, needs to be repositioned in the disciplinary context of design. The intersection between digital manufacturing, artisanal manufacturing and industrial manufacturing, as a framework of hybrid material practices, is seen to offer opportunities in the field of product design. This block will include workshops on material manipulation with a focus on contemporary product design practices: wood and iron manipulation workshop; moulds, ceramics, biomaterials and upcycling workshop.

Module 4 - Practices laboratory. Social, material and disciplinary innovation

In design-associated disciplines, the project represents a key tool both for the synthesis of various dimensions that operate in this complex scenario, as well as the verification, experimentation and exploration of personal and shared knowledge (learning communities). Testing, experimenting, playing, putting knowledge to the test in order to solidify your own opinion, sharing discoveries, asking questions and putting them up for debate, in other words: doing.

Product and social innovation

This block examines the potential of product design as an agent of social transformation, along with the basic digital communication tools associated with product design (context and resources).

Product and material innovation

This block explores the potential of product design as a protocol for innovation and material exploration (new materials) while carrying out an in-depth examination of the domain of digital communication tools (environments and strategies).

Product, design and innovation

Through project-based practice, this block will explore students’ personal fields of interest based on the various concepts and dimensions covered by the master's degree or other relevant concepts from the contemporary landscape of product design.