Summary
The course delves into designing for gradient spaces. What are gradient spaces?
Gradient spaces
(read me!) are physical spaces that blend from the 100% physical (real reality) to the 100% digital
(virtual reality) and anything in between. Through a series of lectures, discussions, and hands-on
projects, the course explores what it means to design in such physical-digital spaces on three core
levels — from design thinking to architectural design and technological design, with a focus on
mixed reality. It considers these from the perspective of occupants of these spaces, who have
different physical and digital needs and preferences.
The goal of the course is to create cross-disciplinary interactions that connect physical space
design and digital application design, towards the creation of physical and digital experiences
that are suitable for and centered on users. Students will be exposed to all three levels of design,
but are expected to focus on only one for their final project.
Learning goals
By the end of the course, students will acquire design and implementation skills in developing
components that blend physical and digital reality in different degrees, while supporting such a
living experience. Specifically, they will:
- Gain a fundamental understanding of what gradient spaces are and how to create their components.
- Learn to approach the design of gradient spaces under the dual lens of physical and digital.
- Develop skills to create and evaluate the components, and acquire hands-on experience through tutorials, studios, and the final project.
- Interact with a range of domain backgrounds, through guest speakers from industry and academia or through fellow classmates.
Prerequisites / notice
The course is set up to include students from different departments. Although there are no
dependencies on other courses, this is not an introductory course. To have a successful experience,
students are required to have: (i) coding experience, if they would like to develop mixed reality or
other applications for their final project; (ii) architectural design knowledge, if they would like
to design a space; (iii) prototyping knowledge, if they would like to create a prototype; etc.
Performance evaluation
Grading combines 2 assignments, 6 readings, and a final project. Assignments require critical
thinking, research into prior work, or hands-on interaction with a pre-existing system, and are
designed to complement the final project. The final project asks students to creatively design and
develop an application based on the material covered in the lectures; there is no final exam.
Students may be evaluated with a letter grade or credit/no credit.
Grading weights: 30% assignments (15% each), 8% readings (1% each, except Reading 6, which is 3%),
and 65% final project (10% proposal report, 12% midterm report, 40% final report).
Evaluation criteria for each assignment and project milestone are on Canvas under the relevant entry
in “Assignments”. Course projects are assigned for review to a team member other than the assigned
TA to reduce bias, with quick feedback from project supervisors and the assigned TA. The final
project grade is decided by considering all feedback during a discussion with the teaching team. All
members of a team receive the same grade unless there are obvious signs of unequal participation and
work.
Late submission policy: students have a total of 3 late days across the course. Each day used
reduces that deliverable's grade by 15%, compounding for consecutive days (e.g., two late days:
grade × 0.85 × 0.85). In case of genuine emergencies, contact the teaching team — some proof may be
requested. Late project reports incur the same penalty for all team members. No late submissions
are accepted for project presentations.