Part A: Course Overview
Course Title: Design Studio: Experimentation
Credit Points: 24.00
Terms
Course Code |
Campus |
Career |
School |
Learning Mode |
Teaching Period(s) |
ARCH3362 |
City Campus |
Undergraduate |
370H Design |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 1 2025 |
Course Coordinator: Stuart McFarlane
Course Coordinator Phone: Please email
Course Coordinator Email: stuart.mcfarlane2@rmit.edu.au
Course Coordinator Location: Please email
Course Coordinator Availability: Please email
Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities
Recommended Prior Study
Before you commence this course you should have satisfactorily completed:
GRAP1041/2919 Design and Society
GRAP1050/2931 Computer-Aided Industrial Design 1
GRAP1052/2933 Industrial Design Prototyping 1
GRAP1049/2924 Industrial Design Drawing 1
GRAP1031/2914 Industrial Design Practice
GRAP2577/2941 Computer-Aided Industrial Design 2
ARCH3355/3358 Industrial Design Prototyping 2
GRAP2576/2926 Industrial Design Drawing 2
Alternatively, you may be able to demonstrate the required skills and knowledge before you start this course.
Contact your course coordinator for further information or if you think you may be eligible for recognition of prior learning.
Course Description
Design Studio: Experimentation focuses your learning on initiating and undertaking a complex individual and/or team-based design inquiry. With a particular emphasis on exploring and experimenting with materials, technologies, and techniques you will work independently and in collaboration with fellow students in a setting that encourages peer-to-peer learning through shared experience. You will undertake design and research within a thematically defined and industry-linked proposition for how design might respond to a series of social, technical and methodological issues and opportunities. You will apply specialised methods of design development, iteration, presentation and prototyping to realise sophisticated design outcomes.
This is a core course in the BH104P25 Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) program.
If you are enrolled in this course as a component of your Bachelor Honours Program, your overall mark will contribute to the calculation of the weighted average mark (WAM).
See the WAM information web page for more information.
This is a designated WIL course in which you will undertake an industry engaged project in a design studio environment. You will receive feedback from industry experts at all stages of your project development.
Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development
Program Learning Outcomes
This course contributes to the following BH104P25 Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) program learning outcomes:
PLO1: Apply analytical, critical, creative, and strategic thinking to industrial design problems and research across complex, place-based, and cultural contexts.
PLO3: Articulate complex design ideas with respect for diverse audiences using an adaptable range of technologies, techniques, and modes of representation.
PLO5: Demonstrate and champion an awareness of design's impact upon people, place, and culture, through ethically grounded practice.
PLO6: Initiate, plan, manage, and realise research-led design projects in an independent, relational, reflective, and ethical manner.
PLO7: Reflect on and adapt your design decisions to address issues as they emerge, with awareness of your relationship to the diverse needs, values, and mindsets of others.
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Research, identify, and respond to industrial design problems to produce complex outcomes.
- Articulate your design ideas to a professional standard through a range of mediums including drawings, software, prototypes, presentations and reports.
- Critically analyse the roles of design, and reflect on the implications of your own activities as a designer.
- Demonstrate creative and strategic design thinking through a rapid acquisition and application of specialist knowledge and skills and the management of design studio projects in collaboration with peers and other stakeholders.
Overview of Learning Activities
Delivered in a design studio format, you will actively learn through a variety of face-to-face, self-directed and online activities. This course immerses you into specific aspects of the discipline, its methods and practices through doing design projects. These projects involve a range of planned learning experiences including: individual and group problem solving; sketch ideation and the iterative development of design concepts; prototyping for the purpose of further refining propositions; realising material design artefacts within workshop environments; and, presenting and reporting on individual and collective learning. The design studio format gives you the opportunity to explore and apply social, contextual , technical, and theoretical design issues in depth and through a variety of approaches, principles, real and simulated situations, and practical constraints.
Overview of Learning Resources
RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems.
To effectively participate in coursework, either on, or away from campus, you are advised to obtain (as a minimum) the following:
- Drawing supplies including visual diaries, pens, pencils, markers and ancillary products and consumables.
- Personal Protective Equipment including protective eyewear, ear plugs, a dust jacket, and closed toe safety shoes.
- Prototyping supplies including a 150mm steel ruler, a high-quality craft knife and ancillary products, materials, and consumables.
- Design and documentation equipment including a personal computer of an appropriate specification, course specific software, a digital camera or mobile phone.
When on campus you will have access to and will utilise the School of Design workshop facilities, specialist computer labs and software, and 2D and 3D printing facilities.
Course specific resources such as readings, reference lists, access to specialist software, video demonstrations and class notes will be provided online.
There are services and resources available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the RMIT student website.
A Library Subject Guide for the discipline this course is aligned to can be found here: https://rmit.libguides.com/design-industrial
Overview of Assessment
You will be assessed on how well you meet the course learning outcomes and on your development against the program learning outcomes.
Graded Core Course
Please note that this course is a core course in the Bachelor of Industrial Design (Hons) program. As such, it is numerically graded and contributes to the calculation of your Weighted Academic Mark (WAM).
Assessment Tasks
Task 1: Design Project Immersion
Weighting 10%
This assessment task supports CLO 1
Task 2: Design Development
Weighting 30%
This assessment task supports CLO1, CLO 3, CLO 4
Task 3: Design Project Realisation
Weighting 60%
This assessment task supports CLO 1, CLO 2, CLO 3, CLO 4
Feedback will be given on all assessment tasks.
If you have a long-term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or Equitable Learning Services if you would like to find out more.
Your course assessment conforms to RMIT assessment principles, regulations, policies, procedures, and instructions.