Studio for Graduate Students

The program for the new building was deliberate in its intent to create spaces to support graduate students; and one of those areas is a dedicated studio. This space is intended to inspire collaboration and support connections among graduate students in Design Studies.

The new studio space is on second floor of the existing building in the east wing. Space formerly occupied by faculty and staff are now combined into a single, open studio with windows on three sides, filling the studio with natural light. The finish will be "raw", with an exposed ceiling and stained/sealed concrete floor.

One of the many inspirations for design elements in the new building came from the first Human Ecology trip to China, led by Design Studies Professor Wei Dong. There visitors saw innovative ideas for flexible exhibition space and as you see in the photo below, studio for graduate students.

For the past several years Professor Dong has taught a study-abroad course, "Global Experience in Design: Chinese Culture, Arts and Design" at Peking University, and has been instrumental in creating the Center for Sustainable Development in Arts and Design with UW-Madison and Tsing Hua University.