Digital Skills Workshop

This summer course for incoming Carnegie Mellon Architecture graduate students helps to establish a baseline of technical skills appropriate to the expectations of the design culture at the school. The course consists of a series of workshops, assignments and tutorials on digital design skills. Organized around four short design exercises, students demonstrate the fundamentals of 2D graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), architectural drafting (Rhino), 3D modeling (Rhino), and parametric modeling (Grasshopper). Through weekly assignments, workshops/lectures and mandatory individual critique sessions, the course establishes a baseline of digital design communication and generative design skills while setting expectations about studio culture and work rigor at the school. This part of the course isn’t only about learning software skills, but more importantly about establishing a consistent work quality and ethic across the cohort. All graduate students are expected to be familiar with the protocols and workflows covered in this course.