WSOA Design Lab introduces high school students to architecture and design

Diagrams by Design Lab student Cayla Bohrer. All students learned to use Rhino and various other software for the first time within the initial weeks of the summer program.

This summer, as part of WSOA’s Summer Design Lab, 16 high school students were tasked to design a neighborhood park in a site of their choosing. Through a series of exercises introducing geometric primitives and abstraction, students used typological elements of ground, object, and sky to assemble a litany of characters that would occupy their park. Once arranged, students used stop motion animation techniques to anticipate user interaction throughout their park, tracing circulation routes and suggesting activities to their park inhabitants.

Design Lab is a five-week course that introduces the principles of experimentation and design in a studio environment. The course is organized within a framework of thinking, drawing, and making. High school students gain an understanding of architectural techniques and theory; in addition, learn about the common practices that are deployed during the design process.