A student walks past the newly designed exterior of the
Blackstone LaunchPad office in the Kent Student Center.

Students from Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design transformed the exterior of the university’s Blackstone LaunchPad office in the Kent Student Center by designing and constructing a wall installation to give it a new look this semester.

Brian Peters, an assistant professor in the college, challenged five student teams to create a wall design as part of his digital crafting class. Each team constructed a design that would reflect not only Blackstone LaunchPad’s innovation but also engage onlookers.

“I’ve been trying to find projects and opportunities students can take advantage of,” Peters says. “Working with a real client and working with a real project gives them extra motivation to challenge themselves.”

The teams created prototypes of their projects and presented their visions to Blackstone LaunchPad. Staff from the office then chose which project they would feature on the exterior wall.

“We were excited about our office becoming an exhibition area for student work, but also wanted something that would inspire people to think, ‘what is LaunchPad?’” says Zach Mikrut, senior marketing manager of Blackstone Launchpad at Kent State. “It was really interesting to see all the different ideas the students came up with.”

About Pixpective – The Winning Installation

Architecture students Ethan Rothermel and Maitlyn Fitz created the winning installation, Pixpective, which uses a series of hexagonal cavities to reveal the hidden images of a light bulb and a robot.

The light bulb represents the entrepreneurial ideas students bring to Blackstone LaunchPad, and the robot represents the office’s contemporary approach to the development of these ideas, Rothermel says. However, both images are only visible from two locations of the Kent Student Center, so the design requires viewers to change their perspective.

Kent State University architecture
students Ethan Rothermel and Maitlyn
Fitz created the winning wall installation,
Pixpective, which uses a series of
hexagonal cavities to reveal the hidden
images of a light bulb and a robot.

“People design so many things in theory, and some of those designs never see the light of day,” Fitz says. “To have something designed and manufactured in a number of weeks is a really big accomplishment.”

Peters says hypothetical projects benefit the students’ education, but the challenge of creating a physical wall installation gives students a window into different aspects of architecture.

“Traditionally, an architect is the designer and is less involved in construction and fabrication,” Peters says. “This project highlights the growing trend of digital design-build projects. The main focus here was for the students to learn digital fabrication tools and parametric design tools.”

Fitz says using these new tools benefitted her because she had little experience with them prior to taking this course.

“Laser cutting was new to me,” Fitz says. “I was glad to have the opportunity to learn the process of creating a real-life prototype from a digital model by this method.”

Rothermel says he also enjoyed learning a new skillset and sees digital crafting as “the future of architecture.”

An Entrepreneurial Approach to Architecture

Staff at Blackstone LaunchPad partnered with Peters’ class because they saw this project as an entrepreneurial approach to the field of architecture and wanted to use the space in the Kent Student Center to display student work.

“We like to see the innovations that are happening across campus,” Mikrut says. “And this is a really great opportunity to showcase the work that the architecture students are doing.”

Because Blackstone LaunchPad is located at the Kent Student Center, it gives Pixpective a larger and more diverse audience.

“We’ve had so many people coming in and complimenting it and asking us questions about the design,” Mikrut says.

In the future, Peters and Mikrut want to continue to provide students with experiences that will support them in their field of study.

“Hopefully, this can be an ongoing collaboration,” Peters says.

To see the wall installation, visit Blackstone LaunchPad on the first floor of the Kent Student Center. Pixpective is displayed on the wall of the office that faces the main staircase, and the wall that faces Risman Plaza features other design ideas from Peters’ class.

For more information about Blackstone LaunchPad at Kent State, visit http://www2.kent.edu/blackstonelaunchpad/index.cfm.

For more information about Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, visit www.kent.edu/caed.