Glass Wows Design Students at Parsons

In April, GPI was invited to present to about 50 students in two sustainable materials courses at New York’s Parsons the New School for Design.

“They are hungry to understand the material production process,” says Erika Doering, Instructor for Materials I, Introduction to Sustainability. “In this first foundation year, they get enough on the aesthetic, but not how a glass bottle is made. Students said it was one of the best lectures they attended.”

According to Doering, many students will be product designers, and if they have a good education in all materials types they can make the best choice for the design problem in front of them. “The more students know about the positive properties of glass, they will place it better,” says Doering. “Glass is a huge material for us. We use it widely, but not always wisely.”

GPI welcomed the opportunity to dialogue with designers-in-the-making. “This is an area we’ve thought about delving into for a long time,” says Rick Bayer, GPI’s academic sub-committee chairman.

Bayer presented the basics—the history of glass, raw materials, recycling, manufacturing process, strength of glass and glass container attributes, glass color, surface treatment, and light weighting. “It was an enthusiastic group of students,” says Bayer. “They seemed to have a thirst for knowledge, and asked really thoughtful and probing questions. It was a nice exchange.”

A presentation was also made to William Neimeier’s Materials II class. GPI looks forward to growing its outreach to design students, including more presentations at Parsons and an invitation through Doering at Pratt Institute.

Doering contacted GPI after researching glass and recycling to better incorporate recycled glass into such materials as countertops, tiles, and other interior products. Doering has always wanted to have students learn how materials are produced so that as designers they can make a positive impact in that process. “Designers can solve challenges better when they have a good understanding of the material and the manufacturing process,” says Doering. “What we’re teaching our students is responsibility.”

After the presentation, students in Doering’s class had a project to take a familiar product and redesign it to be more sustainable. “I was really pleased to see how many research presentations pulled stats from Rick’s presentation and from the GPI web site and used that for their argument for using one material over another,” says Doering. “That was really positive.”