Harvard GSD Design Discovery Virtual 2026
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Harvard GSD Design Discovery Virtual 2026
Design Discovery Virtual (DDV) is a three-week virtual academic program that engages a global audience interested in an introduction to design, media and methods across the three disciplines of Architecture, Landscape, and Urban Planning + Design. Must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or equivalent. U.S. and international citizens are invited to apply.
The program explores the potential of design to address a series of contemporary issues within the built environment. Program participants benefit from a collaborative, cross-disciplinary lens on the 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.
Design Discovery Virtual can be taken before Design Discovery in the same summer, or subsequent years. DDV is not a virtual copy of the in-person program, and is, instead, distinctly formatted as a survey of three design disciplines–one per week–intended to give participants a broad perspective on how they overlap with, relate to, and differ from one another. Graduates of Design Discovery Virtual benefit from this horizontal perspective and may choose to enroll in Design Discovery with a better understanding of which discipline they wish to study in more depth.
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 as guest lecturers and critics for the program. Successful participants receive a program certificate, student evaluation, and produce a draft portfolio of design work that can be shared with design program admission committees, potential design employers, collaborators, clients, or school programs for course credit consideration.