This student work in the Cowgill lobby is a joint exhibition of two first year undergraduate and graduate studios. The four disciplines in our school are represented. The work was primarily completed during the fall semester of 2019. It is a partial snapshot of the first sixteen weeks of a studio education. The exercises and projects attempt to engage fundamental questions of beginnings or foundations through concerted acts of making. Finally the work of the students raises the question of the enduring relevance of “basic design” as a shared common ground for the education of architects, landscape architects, interior designers and industrial designers.