In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design was folded into Illinois Tech's School of Design & Society.
This website is an archive of the impactful and inspirational work produced by the ID community before that transition.

László Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, treating design as a discipline that was teachable, testable, and consequential. Nine decades on, its scope had widened from the things people use to the systems they depend on: hospitals, government agencies, classrooms, supply chains, digital platforms. Along the way, ID community members developed the published research, methods, and frameworks that designers rely on every day.

Chief among them is human-centered design: close attention to how people actually live, and advocacy for what that research reveals. It shaped designers who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity: curious, rigorous, inclusive, and stubbornly optimistic about design's ability to change the systems that shape our lives.

To every one of them, who taught, studied, built, critiqued, and stayed late in the studio: thank you, and keep designing.

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Immersion

Shapeshift Summit: Immersion

Explore AI’s real impact across the global city of Chicago.

The Shapeshift experience began a day early for some attendees, with the sold-out Immersion program on May 28, 2025.

Curated by the Institute of Design in collaboration with Murmur Ring, our Immersion will bring together an intimate group of participants to explore real-world applications of AI across Chicago to make the abstract tangible.

 

Wednesday, May 28

Through a series of site visits with speculative artists data scientists, policymakers, and more, Immersion participants will experience the implications of AI at work in a variety of contexts and models.

Workshops, discussions, and reflections will be facilitated throughout the day and designed to connect the immersion directly to subsequent Summit programming. The Immersion will begin and end in the South Lobby of Merchandise Mart.

8:30 – 9:30am Gather & Welcome
Gather at Merchandise Mart, South Lobby
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza

Join us in the South Lobby of Merchandise Mart for an official immersion welcome and group introductions.

9:30-11:30am Site Visit: National Public Housing Museum & Open Communities
919 S Ada Street

How can AI be deployed to improve housing equity?

Discuss Open Communities‘s 2023 legal case on AI-generated housing discrimination against renters and the platform they are building in response to combat nefarious practices. This site visit will be at the stunning, interactive National Public Housing Museum, which newly opened its doors this April.

This site visit will feature an introduction to the ML-assisted tool Northwestern graduate students have built to serve the Evanston-based fair housing agency’s mission to eradicate housing discrimination.

12-1:30pm Site Visit: Mindworks
224 S Michigan Avenue, Suite 102

How might ascending technologies improve human decision-making?

Join The University of Chicago Booth School of Business scientists at Mindworks, a working laboratory with hands-on exhibitions dedicated to the science of human judgment.

Lunch will be on your own, with a number of dining options nearby.

3-4:30pm Site Visit: Parsons + Charlesworth

How might objects prompt critical discourse of the near future?

Black-Mirror-esque speculative artists Parsons & Charlesworth devise satirical objects and installations that draw upon research into the future of work and human enhancement to highlight the nature of our post-human condition.

Join the artists in their studio and contribute to their Lumen Prize-winning Catalog for the Post-Human.

5-6pm Site Visit: Salesforce
333 W Wolf Point Plaza

How might AI expand philanthropic impact?

Meet Salesforce’s Amy Guterman to discuss how the company uses AI to inform its philanthropic goals.

Plus, build your own AI agent with the Salesforce team.

6:30-8pm Cocktail Reception at Marshall’s Landing
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Founder’s Room

Reflect on the day’s experience and share insights with colleagues over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres during our private reception in the Founder’s Room of Marshall’s Landing in Merchandise Mart.

8pm ART on THE MART Projection Viewing
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Founder’s Room

View the largest permanent digital art platform in the world.

Cynthia Noble, founding Executive Director of ART on THE MART, will join us to discuss this public art initiative as we adjourn to the street for an exclusive projection viewing.

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