I was invited by Jacobo Munoz the Director of the Design Department of the University of Monterrey to teach 5-week workshops for the first and second year students at their campus in Hermosillo, Mexico. For the first 3 weeks of the workshops, students worked on individual projects and the last 2 weeks of the workshops the students collaborated together on one large project, The Banquet Laboratory, which was a culinary event that friends and family attended.

For the first year students, I developed a curriculum directing them to design projects using an abundant resource in their region, sunlight. They were to create new toys and games that reacted and interacted with sun. Each student proposed numerous ideas and present them to the class for a critical discussion. The students eventually chose one their ideas, which they developed and exhibited at the final banquet event.

For the second year students, we followed a similar curriculum as the first year students except more challenging because by random choice of lottery, they were each assigned one material and a local artisan/craftsman to collaborate with. They were to create a table-top object that could be used for the final banquet event. In some cases the assigned material was unfamiliar to the craftsman so the students we’re challenged on how to create using a material outside the knowledge and skills of the craftsman.

For the final banquet, groups of students were each assigned a specific course of the meal to design, cook and present. They were also responsible for designing the ambiance of the event. The second year students provided the accompanying tableware objects that they had realized for their personal projects during the first 3-weeks of the workshops. The event was a success, having over 150 people attend.