Digitization & Teaching with Collections

Our faculty houses both a leading collection of architectural models and a leading collection of chairs. These collections are involved in exhibitions in various museums on a regular basis, but in addition to this we initiated a series of projects to improve their presence online. As university collections we are involved in object based learning, both in research and design education, but in addition, by using digital means we aim to enlarge accessibility and impact of the collections outside the faculty.

In 2015 we started the Off the Shelf project, which resulted in exhibitions and educational projects. A publication about this was published in 2017, Off the Shelf, which can be viewed via this link.

With the Interior Chair, the 'Make a set' project was carried out in 2016, in which students built a small 1/1 set, in which a chair played the leading role. The design was based on a thesis research into the origin, design and production of the chairs, which had been carried out by the students at the History chair the previous quarter. In 2016 and 2017, we collaborated with Form & Modelling Studies in various design courses. In the Minor Advanced Prototyping, students designed a lamp based on the analysis of a selected chair from the chair collection (TU Delft heritage). And in the Minor House of the Future, students designed a table. The assignment for the students was to enter into a “dialogue” with one of the chairs in the collection, and base a design for a lamp or table on it. These projects resulted in exhibitions held at the Prinsenkwartier.

In 2018 we started research workshops, working toward the exhibition titled ‘Drawing Rooms’, at the Museum Paul Tetar van Elven in Delft. Students researched heritage objects, and the museum itself, which lead up to the design assignment. Again, the results were shown in an exhibition at the museum in 2020. Also in 2019-2020, students in the project "Virtual Chairs" examined some collection items. They then built an AR exhibition around a digital 3D model of the chair.