Introduction to Technology

Design through Molding

First Year,  Semester B

Credits: 1.5

Course Description:

Design through Mold is a technological course comprising theoretical lectures and practical group work. Students will be exposed to the importance of the mold in industry as a central manufacturing tool. As archaeology teaches us, copper casting using the lost-wax method represents human-material knowledge dating back 6,000 years or more and remains the most precise casting method in the metal industry to this day. Through lectures on the history of molds, various industrial-material environments, and key concepts in design planning and form design using molds, the course will present the foundations of thinking alongside the principles of design and manufacturing for various types of molds and materials: plastics, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, glass, ceramics, and concrete.

During the course, students will participate in a group exercise to search for a mold-made product and reproduce it in an alternative or parallel material. This includes building a semi-industrial production mold in one chosen material field out of several options: polymer casting, metal casting, ceramic casting, glass casting, mold-blown glass, or concrete casting. Each working group will operate within a different material discipline, utilizing the casting options available in Bezalel's various workshops and the studio.