Design Discovery (DD) is a 3-week in person academic program that takes place at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) in Cambridge, MA and engages an audience of individuals 18 years old to mid-career professionals interested in gaining knowledge within a single, selected design discipline. Participants enroll in either Architecture, Landscape, and Urban Planning + Design.
The program explores the potentials of design to impact the built environment and the active conditions it choreographs through the material and scale specific to a particular design discipline. Program participants direct design to contemporary issues with an emphasis on hands-on physical modeling, material capacities, fabrication, and assembly, in complement to the Design Discovery Virtual program’s digital media emphasis. Students are taught by Harvard GSD faculty and masters and doctoral degree program graduates in addition to engagement with a broad and diverse network of design talent, across the three disciplines, invited to serve as guest lecturers and critics.
Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) is a three-week virtual academic program that engages a global audience of individuals 18 years old to mid-career professionals interested in an introduction to design, its media and methods, across the three disciplines of Architecture, Landscape, and Urban Planning + Design. U.S. and international citizens are invited to apply.
The program explores the potentials of design to address a series of relevant contemporary issues within the built environment. Program participants benefit from a cross-disciplinary lens on the collaborative development of design responses to weekly topics through visual communication with an emphasis on digital media for design drawing and modeling. Participants are also exposed to the wide range of perspectives about the built environment that this program’s global audience offers. This program is taught by a diverse group of Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) faculty, masters, and doctoral degree program graduates and includes interaction with a broad network of design talent invited to serve as guest lecturers and critics for the program.
Design Discovery Youth (DDY) is a three-week in-person program for summer 2025 that takes place at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) on Harvard's campus in Cambridge, MA. This program engages an audience of Boston area high school students, rising sophomore to senior year in age, who are interested in learning about what design is, its media and methods, and the scales it involves. The program explores how to translate participants’ varied and valuable observations of the world into the spatial and visual language of design. Students are taught by Harvard GSD faculty and masters degree program graduates in addition to interacting with a diverse community of Boston area design talent and agencies.
Participants receive a program certificate, student evaluation, and produce a draft portfolio of design work that can be shared with design programs or professionals in pursuit of additional forms of design education and internship experiences to follow.