Design Courses at MIT

Design is a process and mode of inquiry that underpins research and pedagogy across the Institute. MIT has a rich history of advancing design theory, research, teaching, and practice, with impact at MIT and around the world. It offers a wide range of courses such as graphic design, industrial design, digital design, visual communication... and has a Design minor / major within the Department of Architecture.

2025 Spring Semester

Highlighted Courses from the Department of Architecture

4.021
DESIGN STUDIO: HOW TO DESIGN

Instructors: Ekin Bilal, Paul Pettigrew

Schedule:
MW 2–5pm

This class introduces fundamental design principles as a way to demystify design & provide a basic introduction to all aspects of the design process. 4.021 stimulates creativity, abstract thinking, representation, iteration, & design development. 4.021 Equips students with skills to have more effective communication with designers, & develops their ability to to apply the foundations of design to any discipline.

4.021 assigns 3 projects exploring various topics through concepts, drawings, & physical fabrication. Students engage with an increasing level of design research through iterative studies & move fluidly between different modes & scales of operation.

4.022
INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES

Instructors: Carrie Norman

Schedule:
MW 2–5pm

This class introduces tools, techniques, & technologies that form the basis of the design professions. The studio will explore observation, measurement, drawing, & physical making as instruments for generating & conveying ideas. The semester is organized around 3 design projects. Each project will focus on different methods & mediums, but emphasize the common themes of iterative testing, precision, & material craft. Work will be supported by a range of digital design & fabrication technologies. Throughout, students will be prompted to consider their work within a broader set of cultural, technical, & historic contexts. Course format will include workshops, lectures, one-on-one instruction, and periodic reviews with guest critics.

4.024
DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

Instructors: Jaffer Kolb, Ekin Bilal w/ Junha Hwang

Schedule:
TRF 1–5pm

The revolution starts at home. The single family dwelling is an architectural type that dictates and commodifies societal norms: nuclear families, gender binaries, heternormativity, etc. Our lived and imagined realities expand far beyond these structures. How might architecture collaborate with or support existing, imagined, even radical forms of social cooperation and collectivity?

In this studio we will reconsider the “home” as catalyst and stabilizer for alternative ways of living and belonging. Personal knowledge is centered as the starting point. We will work iteratively and carefully through architectural drawing & modeling, paying attention to the dual development of ideas craft through representation and presentation.


4.032
INFORMATION DESIGN & VISUALIZATION

Instructor: Ben Fry

Schedule:
W 9:30–11am

What are the political & economic patterns behind the history of skyscraper construction in New York City? What would it look like if women’s fencing stats received the same amount of attention as pro football? What can we learn from interviewing multicultural students about their experience at MIT? What stories can be told from two decades of a family’s Amazon purchase history?

4.032 Information Design & Visualization is an introduction to working with & visualizing information in a hands-on studio environment. The course progresses through basic data analysis, visual design & presentation, & more sophisticated interaction techniques.

Topics include storytelling & narrative, the importance of audience & context, choosing representations, & a focus on how visualizations are deployed in the real world.


4.043
INTERACTION INTELLIGENCE

Instructor: Marcelo Coelho

Schedule:
W 3–5pm, F 2–5pm

Interaction Intelligence Spring 2025 is an overview of core principles & techniques for the design of interaction, behavior, & intelligence across objects & spaces.

Students will develop low & high-fidelity interactive prototypes that can be deployed & experienced by real users. Lectures cover the history & principles of human-computer interaction, behavior prototyping, physical & graphical user interfaces, machine intelligence, neural networks, & large language models.

4.043 provides a foundation in technical skills, such as physical prototyping, coding, & electronics, as well as how to collect data, train, & deploy their own neural network models.


4.117
CREATIVE COMPUTATION

Instructor: Danniely Staback Rodríguez

Schedule:
W 2-5pm

This class invites students to harness computational tools to recenter questions of meaning, material embodiment & shared processes. We will explore distributed methods of digital design & physical fabrication, & shift our attention: from the final outcome, to the process; from the final form, to the potential interactions; from the precision, to the tolerance; from the constraints, to the variables; from single authorship, to shared meaning– & to welcome uncertainty as an asset.

Students will engage in a semester-long speculative project, broken down into discrete assignments. In each prompt, students will produce a computational artifact & hone in on a process of digital iteration, physical prototyping, & creative dialogue.


4.501
TINYFAB: ADVANCEMENTS IN RAPID DESIGN & FABRICATION OF SMALL HOMES

Instructor: Larry Sass

Schedule:
T 9am-12pm

This class introduces digital fabrication as a method of home, hut, and shelter delivery (construction) after design. It also explores industrial-based building production, from prefab to digital fab. Most importantly, it explores new computational techniques for rapid construction. We will explore the basics of tiny building design, different types of 3D modeling systems, scalable ways to prototype, and CNC fabrication. The focus is on learning by doing. The class result will be a well-designed prototype of a small building as a single packaged product.


4.s14
BAD TRANSLATION

Instructor: Bo-Won Keum

Schedule:
M 10am–1pm

How does the grammar behind tool & substrate set the rules for translation? When do these translations fail, & why? What do those failures generate instead? How can translations, good & bad, productively challenge an idea’s core?

Part visual language study/seminar, part workshop, 4.s14 Spring 2025 will examine translation as method & practice for visual experimentation. The course will start by examining typographic printing history, where students will gain knowledge of the various technological precedents for fixing forms of language. Students can also expect to experiment with calligraphic form, modular alphabets, notational conventions, musical transposition, & image-to-text as well as text-to-image translations. These experiments will be supplemented with guest visits from artists, writers, & technologists, as well as references of theoretical writings.


MIT D-Lab Courses

2.722J / EC.720
D-LAB: DESIGN

Instructors: Ankita SinghEliza Squibb

Schedule:
M3-5, W3

Addressing problems faced by underserved communities with a focus on design, experimentation, and prototyping processes. Particular attention is placed on constraints faced when designing for developing countries. Topics covered include design for affordability, design for manufacture, sustainability, and strategies for working effectively with community partners and customers. Students may continue projects begun in D-Lab: Development (EC.701).


EC.725
D-LAB: LEADERSHIP IN DESIGN

Instructor: Ankita Singh, Eliza Squibb

Schedule:
M3-5, W3

Taught in tandem with D-Lab: Design, 2.722J / EC.720, this course places special focus on team capacity building and the communication skills critical to design leadership.

Multidisciplinary teams work on semester-long projects in collaboration with international organizations, field practitioners, and experts, building team and leadership skills used to address problems faced by underserved communities while implementing design, experimentation, and hands-on prototyping processes.

Topics covered include human-centered design, design for affordability and remote manufacturing, sustainability, and strategies for working effectively with international partners.


EC.750 / EC.785 (G)
HUMANITARIAN INNOVATION

Instructors: Amy SmithMartha Thompson

Schedule:
MW1-3

Design for relief, recovery, and rebuilding: Are you interested in finding out how participatory innovation can improve the situation of people impacted by conflict?

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, predicts that by the end of 2025 there will be 139 million people forcibly displaced by conflict, violence, or persecution. Available resources are heavily strained, and organizations urgently need innovative solutions to provide basic needs to this population.

MIT D-Lab takes a capacity-building approach to this challenge, engaging refugees and displaced people in creating solutions to the problems they face and developing opportunities for self-reliance. D-lab’s Humanitarian Innovation class focuses on building students’ skills to work with conflict-impacted populations in the area of humanitarian innovation, providing an opportunity to travel over spring break to participate in a co-creation workshop with refugees in the Rhino and Imvepi settlements in northern Uganda. Read more on the D-Lab website.


2.651 / EC.711 / EC.791 (G)
INTRODUCTION TO ENERGY IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

Instructor: Joshua Paul Maldonado

Schedule:
MW1-2:30 (lecture), F1-3 (lab)

Students survey energy technologies including solar wind and hydro power, cooking, indoor heating, irrigation, and agricultural productivity, through an international development context to impart energy literacy and common-sense applications. This course focuses on compact, robust, low-cost systems for meeting the needs of households and small business; and provides an overview of identifying user needs, assessing the suitability of specific technologies, and strategies for implementation in developing countries. Labs reinforce lecture material through hands-on activities including system assembly and testing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.


11.474 (G) / EC.715
D-LAB: WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE

Instructors: Libby HsuSusan Murcott

Schedule:
TR1-2:30

Understanding water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenges and innovations in developing countries and underserved communities worldwide.

D-Lab Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) focuses on water/environment practices and innovations in low-income countries and underserved communities worldwide. Class time will balance learning core concepts through lectures, discussions, and student-led tutorials with project-based learning, in which teams or individuals propose their own idea or select an international or domestic WASH project to work on from a menu of options. Students are mentored through the process of bringing their project to fruition. The class emphasizes core WASH and water/environment principles, culture-specific solutions, tools for start-ups, appropriate and sustainable technologies, behavior change, social businesses, and building collaborative partnerships. The term project entails the opportunity to implement a WASH/environmental solution in a specific locale. Read more on the D-Lab website.


EC.719 / EC.789 (G)
D-LAB: CLIMATE CHANGE AND PLANETARY HEALTH

Instructors: Susan MurcottJulie Simpson

Schedule:
R12-3

Examining the current state and future projections of climate change and its effects on human, ecosystem, and planetary health, and developing solutions for these challenges.

D-Lab: Climate Change and Planetary Health is project-based, student-focused, experiential, and transdisciplinary. Emphasizing nature- and community-based solutions, both local and global, the class focuses on environmental and climate justice.

Participation and teamwork are fundamental, as are experiential activities such as field trips to zero-carbon buildings and to sites undergoing rapid transformation.


EC.S06 (U) / EC.S11 (G)
THERMAL ENERGY NETWORKS FOR RAPID, COST-EFFECTIVE CAMPUS DECARBONIZATION

Instructors: Susan MurcottHarvey Michaels

Schedule:
W9-12

This course explores Thermal Energy Networks (TEN) drawing inspiration from local and North American expertise, with lectures based on leading professional association trainings (IDEA, California Geo, ASHRAE) including the IGSHPA Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD) course. It will cover both fundamental topics (air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, geo-exchange, thermal energy storage, waste heat recovery), and advanced topics including TEN case studies of several leading campuses.

Design at MIT

Whether creating lab experiments, musical scores, medical devices, consumer products, computer codes, business models, or architectural plans, we believe every MIT student could be considered a designer.

Below is a sample of MIT courses mobilizing design. Courses are subject to change every semester. This list is intended as a way to facilitate identifying design courses across the Institute, but is not exhaustive.

We refer students to the official MIT Subject Listing & Schedule released by the Registrar's Office.

Course 1: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Course 2: Mechanical Engineering

Course 3: Materials Science and Engineering

Course 4: Architecture

Course 5: Chemistry

Course 6: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Course 7: Biology

Course 9: Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Course 10: Chemical Engineering

Course 11: Urban Studies and Planning

Course 12: Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

Course 14: Economics

Course 15: Management

Course 16: Aeronautics and Astronautics

Course 17: Political Science

Course 18: Mathematics

Course 20: Biological Engineering

Course 21A: Anthropology

Course 21H: History

Course 21M: Music and Theater Arts

Course 21W: Comparative Media Studies / Writing

Course 22: Nuclear Science and Engineering

Course 24: Linguistics and Philosophy

Course CMS: Comparative Media Studies / Writing

MAS — Media Arts and Sciences

More courses coming soon!