DEA 5500

Designing for Material Affect

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This course explores material affects' ephemeral yet profound influence on human experiences. By integrating theories from environmental psychology, philosophy, and design, students investigate how materials shape both our surroundings and ourselves. Emphasizing an applied theory approach, students will actively engage with concepts by crafting and testing material assemblies. Through hands-on exploration, they'll uncover the fundamental connections between material qualities, sensory interactions, and environmental atmospheres, fostering design innovation.

Enrollment Priority Enrollment preference given to: upper level undergraduate students in FSAD, DEA, AAP, MUSIC, ARCH, and LARC majors, and graduate students with design backgrounds.

Last 4 Terms Offered 2024SP, 2022SP

Learning Outcomes

• Investigate typologies of physical and affective material qualities.
• Explore theories of affect, atmosphere, aesthetics, phenomenology, and related topics.
• Examine the connection between material qualities and human affect via sensory experiences and physical phenomena through hands-on exploration.
• Apply research, design, fabrication, and evaluation techniques to construct human-experience-focused material propositions.
• Employ graphic information visualization and narrative communication for accessible presentations.

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