“Design Days” is a unique two-day event held during Orientation Week, for new Architectural Engineering students. Students are given the opportunity to solve a challenging, open-ended problem by brainstorming, designing and constructing a solution in collaboration with their new classmates. The aim of the event is to engage students in “design from Day 1”, and create an experiential learning environment where students are given the freedom to explore creative ideas whilst also drawing on the resources of experienced faculty, staff, technicians and upper-year students, for guidance.
This year, the inaugural Architectural Engineering class of 91 students, was tasked with designing a piece of furniture to be used within the new Engineering 7 building. After being broken into small teams, students sketched their ideas before deciding on a final concept and method of construction. Ideas ranged from the practicality of a large, garbage unit, to the luxury of an ergonomically shaped chaise lounge. Once construction had been finalized, each group was required to present their ideas and findings to a panel of judges, as well as their fellow classmates, and test the load-bearing capability of the piece of furniture. In this way, students not only learned from their own experience, but also from the efforts and struggles of other teams.
The day ended in triumph for Team 4, which was voted the People’s choice award with their practical and stylish “double study table”, and for Team 19 who took out the overall prize with their “bench seat”.