3D exhibition modeling in SketchUp

Professionalize your skills in creating digital spaces and formalizing exhibition projects with SketchUp, the essential modeling software.

More and more art and cultural institutions are asking curators and artists to work on and formalize their exhibition projects using digital space modeling. This training course will teach you how to use SketchUp, the most commonly used and accessible software in these contexts, so that you can become autonomous in its use.
As a tool for creation, production, communication and mediation, this program lets you virtually explore and experiment with a wide range of hanging configurations. Try, compare, dare, before deciding. At the logistical level, 3d modeling helps to organize the installation, giving technical teams a precise reference point and enabling them to anticipate practical issues. Finally, by offering the possibility of generating views of exhibitions, whether outdoor or immersive, creating images and rapidly producing floor plans, these programs are an invaluable asset for communicating with and welcoming the public.

Intended audience
This course is aimed primarily at people involved or interested in designing and setting up exhibitions (notably artists, curators, scenographers, stage managers, fitters, institutional managers, curators, exhibition commissioners).
 

Targeted skills
Be able to use the SketchUp program independently
Be able to translate an idea into a 3D plan 
Know how to model / represent works in 3D
Have an enhanced ability to think about spaces from the inside / project an experience for the public
Understand the added value and limits of these modes of representation.

Prerequisites
Basic skills in using image processing programs. Training will take place on a Mac with a personal computer and a training license key.

Course duration: 5 days
Dates : 
  • Wednesday, January 21, 2026 from 9am to 12:30pm and from 1:30pm to 5:30pm
  • Thursday, January 22, 2026 from 9am to 12:30pm and from 1:30pm to 5:30pm
  • Friday, January 23, 2026 from 9am to 12:30pm and from 1:30pm to 5:30pm
  • Thursday, February 5, 2026 from 9am to 12:30pm and from 1:30pm to 5:30pm
  • Friday, February 6, 2026 from 9am to 12:30pm and from 1:30pm to 5:30pm


Fee: 1500 CHF / HEAD Alumni - Geneva 1200 CHF
Language: French
Course format: group program, workshop and practical exercises, individualized follow-up
Title issued: Attestation de formation continue
Credits: equivalent to 2 ECTS
Location: HEAD Campus, Building D and LiveInYourHead exhibition space, Boulevard James-Fazy 15, 1201 Genev

Progam

Teaching methods
Training days will be made up of theoretical and practical courses, modeling exercises and a personal project to validate the training.
The training requires personal work outside the course.

Session 1 - Getting started with Sktechup (course, practical exercise) 
Session 2 - Practical exercise: Live In Your Head modeling (personal project) 
Session 3 - Sktechup modeling tools (course, practical exercise) 
Session 4 - Practical exercise: Modeling a scenographic device (personal project) 
Session 5 - Groups and components (course, practical exercise) 
Session 6 - Practical exercise : Content modeling (personal project) 
Session 7 - Material applications (course, practical exercise) 
Session 8 - Reflecting on the issues: sharing the experience of a curator using SketchUp 
Session 9 - Generating a hanging including 3D modeling visuals 
Session 10 - Generating a dimensioned exhibition plan (legal clearance, circulation)

Individual question/answer sessions 
Restitution of final work

Teachers

Valentin Dubois
Valentin Dubois is a French interior designer trained at HEAD - Geneva and Design Academy Eindhoven. His work has won numerous awards. Valentin Dubois lives and works in Geneva, where he has been running his design studio since 2018. His projects range from interior decoration and space planning to furniture design and scenography, extending far beyond the realms of design. At the invitation of curator Charlotte Laubard, he designed one of the spaces in the Swiss Pavilion for the 58th Venice Art Biennale in 2019. In parallel with his design activities, he teaches in the space design department at HEAD - Geneva, and is also involved in architectural mediation projects.
Paul Bernard 

A graduate of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences sociales, Paul Bernard has been Director of Pasquart in Biel since 2022. He previously worked at the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain in Geneva, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Institut d'art contemporain in Villeurbanne, France.

Renseignements et inscriptions
Contact : fc.head@hesge.ch
Registration form
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