Design Week offers multidisciplinary activities

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design & Planning’s second annual Design Week begins Thursday, Jan. 22, and will conclude Jan. 30.

"It’s an eight-day series of multidisciplinary events, lectures, workshops, and competitions," said event organizer and student Katie Whiteman. "We want them to appeal to students enrolled in any of the broad spectrum of majors offered at KU's School of Architecture, Design & Planning. However, all KU students are invited to participate in Design Week events.”

Besides architecture and urban planning, students who are studying in the Department of Design may specialize in visual communications, photo media, illustration, industrial design and environmental design. 

Activities will include a movie night, a puzzle workshop, scavenger hunt, dollhouse challenge, paper-engineering workshop and a drop-cap-battle tennis match.

Participants may also spend an afternoon working in the design department’s letterpress lab; tour the Lawrence Public Library with the architects and graphic designers, and attend a discussion about the design process experts from Useagility, a user-experience design firm from Kansas City, Missouri.   

Accompanying the event will be an exhibit of design student work opening Friday, Jan. 23, at the Kansas Union Gallery. A Design Week wrap party will take place Jan. 30 at Pachamamas, 800 New Hampshire St.

Organizers of Design Week have created a Facebook page with an extensive description of each event, its time and location. A brief video designed to promote the event can be viewed here.