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RAD CENTER: THE FUTURE OF FABRICATION AT SCI-ARC Robot House, Analog Shop, and Digital Fabrication Lab
SUPPORT THE MAGIC BOX! SCI-Arc invites you to join in the effort to build a new state-of-the-art Digital Fabrication Lab, the ‘Magic Box’, by making a gift today. We have already received lead gifts from two trustees and are now seeking support from the broader community—alumni, parents, and friends. Naming opportunities will be available for key spaces throughout the addition and a permanent Donor Wall will recognize all donors to the project. The collective giving of the SCI-Arc community plays a vital role in supporting innovation and experimentation at the school and we hope you will consider being a part of this exciting project. For more information on the RAD Center or about how to make a gift, please visit www.sciarc.edu/magicbox.html or contact Sarah Sullivan, SCI-Arc’s Chief Advancement Officer, at 213356-5319 or Sarah_Sullivan@sciarc. edu.
1. SCI-Arc Trustee Thom Mayne with Tom Wiscombe and Michael Rotondi 2. Jerry Gonzales, SCI-Arc Trustee Merry Norris and Francois Nion 3. Glen Irani, Anthony Coscia and Jonathan Day 4. John Enright and recent alumni Andrew Hammer (B.Arch ’13), Paul Andrzejczak (B.Arch ’13) , Vanessa DeLaHoz, and Ryan Wynn (B.Arch ’13) 5. MOCA galleries featuring A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California 6. Marcelo Spina and Georgina Huljich of PATTERNS with their pavilion 7. Dick Doyle, President and CEO of the Vinyl Institute, with Solar Decathlon students Sheila Lo (Caltech), Paige Chambers (M.Arch ’13) and Nicole Violani (M.Arch ’13) 8. George Petersen of Apollo Opening Roof Systems and Kevin Mulvaney of the Vinyl Institute
Next Fall, SCI-Arc plans to open a new Digital Fabrication Lab (dubbed ‘the Magic Box’) and complete its RAD Center (Robot House, Analog Shop, and Digital Fabrication Lab). The space will 7 the school’s experimental approach to design and its expand emphasis on learning through building and provoking critical discussions, and solidify its commitment to developing and growing its permanent Downtown Los Angeles location. It is impossible to separate SCI-Arc from where it has always existed, California. Whether in an industrial building in Santa Monica or a historic train depot downtown, the ethos of SCI-Arc has always been fundamentally linked to where it was born, grew up, and now, where it is headed. With its almost mythical reputation of a land where any idea can flourish as long as one ‘tries it,’ California has always been a place where architects and designers from around the world have found a culture that welcomes the new, experimental, and unknown. In turn, the technology required in order to test and create has also evolved to spur, or even keep up with, the innovative ideas embraced by the experimental and open culture. Throughout its history, SCI-Arc has shared this emphasis on experimentation and making. Architecture education here goes beyond the design of physical spaces—it is a series of intensive interactions that brings students and ideas together to focus on process, discussion, feedback, and iterations. Architectural writer and editor Sam Lubell, in a recent essay,8underscored the notion that Los Angeles embodies a “culture of technology-fueled risk taking that draws architects from across the country and the world” and specifically highlights SCI-Arc’s “focus [on] the infinite, overwhelming possibilities of digital technology, from visualization to, more recently, robotics and fabrication.” As digital fabrication technology develops and continues its rapid impact on the design field, demand for new tools has grown at SCI-Arc. Complementing its current Robot House and Analog Shop, the Magic Box is anticipated to become an industry-leading facility for the visualization and fabrication of architectural projects. The space will dramatically increase the number of highspeed laser cutters, CNC milling machines, and 3D scanners and ABS plastic printers. With a flexible layout, the lab will also have the room to grow and adapt to further developments in technology and software. Together, these three fabrication components— robotic, analog, and digital—will make up the new RAD Center, a multi-dimensional facility providing access to several different methods of fabrication and assembly. While undoubtedly a space for fabrication, the RAD Center is 10 importantly also envisioned as a platform for design and experimentation for SCI-Arc’s faculty and students. Housing multiple means of production, cutting-edge research within the Robot House can be bridged with important explorations occurring through other digital means and with hands-on projects in the adjacent wood and metal shops, which will also be
9. Aaron Ryan (M.Arch ’13) and Reed Finlay (M.Arch ’10) 10. Kiyokazu Arai (M.Arch ’83) 11. John Bohn and Yusuke Obuchi (B.Arch ’97)
Brian Harms, Haejun Jung, Vince Huang, Yuying Chen, Suspended Depositions
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Magic Box
undergoing a floor-to-ceiling renovation. Just as a crossdisciplinary approach to learning expands understanding, allowing a platform for SCI-Arc’s academic community to move freely between different realms of fabrication and design will further enhance their capacity for innovation, creativity, and experimentation. Architect and SCI-Arc alum Barbara Bestor, who graduated 9 recalls why she chose to move here for her in the early 1990’s, graduate studies: “I had grown up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and while studying at the AA in London, people kept telling me that people were building in L.A., they were doing some very experimental things, and I knew I had to go there. SCI-Arc was a place where we could test ideas and try new things, and the school embraced that.” Alumni like Bestor are continuing to test the grounds of architecture, and SCI-Arc’s faculty and students remain committed to these notions as well, working with new technologies to push the boundaries of what they can do. As Peter Testa, who with Devyn Weiser initiated SCI-Arc’s Robot House in 2011 says, “I am interested in developing new models of practice, and at SCI-Arc the digital and physical are converging in a way that is not simply about fabrication, but rather focused on design innovation.” Faculty like Marcelo Spina, coordinator of the Emerging Systems, Technologies & Media (ESTm) postgraduate program, are devoted to empowering students to expand their imaginations and use acquired technological skills and materials research to further explore the limits of architecture. Such cross-fabrication 11 and design is very much a part of how they envision the potential for student development. In Tom Wiscombe’s studio last semester, a group of students combined analog painting techniques in digital sculpting software with robotic control. One of these students, Brian Harms, recently explained why he chose SCI-Arc: “For me SCI-Arc is a very serious playground in which one can canvass a variety of ideas and techniques in a relatively short amount of time. SCI-Arc encourages students to discover what genuinely interests them, and provides a platform for the rigorous pursuit and development of those ideas.” Experimentation and making at SCI-Arc will continue to evolve once the RAD Center’s expansion and renovation is complete. SCI-Arc’s unique faculty and students recognize that they must not only use available and cutting-edge technology for its identified purposes, but that through bridging robotic capabilities with other digital and analog means, they will continue to be at the forefront of fabrication, experimentation, and architectural design. The addition of the Digital Fabrication Lab to campus will also help realize SCI-Arc’s full potential as an anchor institution in the community and by offering such