PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN · NYC
Nathalie Pozzi
Teaching is an opportunity to explore the ethics and aesthetics of design.
As a practitioner, it is unsettling to recognize that contemporary design is part of a larger system of depletive consumption. The wish to “do more and better” sometimes obfuscates the importance of stepping back and recognizing that we can do better with less.
In 1906, Frank Alvah Parsons established the first academic interior design program in the United States. Parsons continues to lead this evolving field with programs including AAS Interior Design.
Encompassing a unique array of design disciplines, Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments (SCE) guides students in creating socially and environmentally sustainable, technologically innovative buildings, interiors, lighting, and products.
- Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments (SCE)
AAS ID Studio 1 introduces students to fundamental interior design issues.
The class is an opportunity to consider how spatial relationships, form, program, materials - as well as craft, fabrication, production, creative processes of problem solving and communication - can foster design practices that develop and value systems of regenerative non-consumption.
AAS ID Histories and Theories 3 investigates the premise that Interiors and Interior Design are connected to and need to be conversant with current world-shaping social, political, economic, and cultural forces and events.
The class works toward developing a critical approach to Interior Design, particularly in respect to issues of design as social practice and to sustainable design.
Mark Warfield - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2019
ID Studio 1
The projects presented are a selection of student work from ID Studio 1 in the Interior Design Department. Sophisticated and rich in their conceptual approach, each project carefully considers how to resolve a complex set of functional needs with the grounding principle of “do the most with the least”.
None of the projects follow the same approach: high flexibility, limited demolition, easy long term maintenance, and restrained use of resources and materials are some of the strategies explored in the development of these designs.
Mark Warfield - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2019
Cristina Sciarra - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2018
ID Studio 1 - Residential Assignment
The residential project asks students to design a live/work space for a professional client with a set of unique requirements. The live/work space to be developed is a cubical volume of 20 feet. The project requires the design of a double level.
The students will select a context and location, which will influence both functional and conceptual design choices. Students will be required to design the space considering the tight dimensional limitations of the volume available.
This exercise introduces students to site analysis, space planning, programming, and circulation.
Cristina Sciarra - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2018
Cristina Sciarra - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2018
Arianna De Gasperis - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2018
Arianna De Gasperis - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2018
ID Studio 1 - Retail Assignment
The retail project asks students to design a retail space with a set of unique requirements.
The students are assigned an existing location in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which will influence both functional and conceptual design choices. Students will be required to design the space considering the features of the building (openings, materials, light orientation, etc.).
This exercise strengthens the students’ skills in developing site analysis, space planning, programming, and circulation within a rather large space, but with a defined existing set of constraints. .
Arianna De Gasperis - PARSONS - AAS - ID Studio 1 - Fall 2018
ID Studio 1 - A Table for Eight
The AAS Interior Design Program is open to students from many backgrounds. For this reason, the introductory project of the class is approachable yet surprisingly complex.
Students are asked to design a custom table for eight people and select eight chairs among available pre-existing products. The table and eight chairs represent a unique client, their needs, values, interests and aesthetics. The table should allow seating for eight people (not more, not less) and the chairs should be designed, authored objects, with a traceable history.
The assignment allows student to familiarize with the correlated concepts of… dimension / form / style / material / finish / texture/ colour / sound / temperature / comfort / ergonomics / fabrication / durability / maintenance / cost / lead time / availability / transportation / access / history of a designed object and of its designer(s) …
”We need to get rid of the idea of global profit, finance, industries and brands. We need to get rid of advertising, and of all forms of sponsored communications, of the world of forms with no essence that has replaced our kids’ school and education.
Of all that exists to convince us that we need what we do not need, and that knowledge, wisdom and success can be easy and require no effort. We need to get rid of all the family-driven morals that could be all fine and well by themselves but that are all nonetheless blind. And we need to open our eyes towards a new collective ethic.
And then, we may also have new designs. Because the first condition to create good design is passion for transformation.”
- Enzo Mari