Introduction Minor
The Interactive Environments Minor is a shared initiative by the faculty of Architecture (Hyperbody) and Industrial Design (ID-StudioLab). The Interactive Environments Minor explores the possibilities for dynamic, interactive spaces in which people and buildings engage in a mutual relationship with one other. By connecting the data and experiences that develop though this relationship between buildings and their inhabitants, the built environment becomes an interactive, adaptive and animate entity. The course aims at bringing together experimental architecture, CNC prototyping technologies, human-computer interaction knowledge and the techniques of sketching with technology, to provide ambitious, multidisciplinary students with the conceptual and practical tools for mastering the newly emerging phenomenon: interactive environments.

Our  vision in today’s dynamic information rich context is specifically geared towards developing strategic design methodologies via computation and interaction design techniques to produce socially, environmentally and economically performative design solutions and to demonstrate their buildability by developing 1:1 prototypes. The course structure of the Interactive Environments Minor is built around a group project assignment of an interactive social space, built up from autonomously operating smart building components. The students are assigned to design, fabricate and build a Non Standard and Interactive Environment to actively involve people in public space. The design assignment includes the design of interaction scenarios, and the integration of its embedded computing technologies.