LOS ANGELES, CALIF., Nov. 20, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) today announced that it will break ground on a technologically transformative new digital fabrication space that will ignite the kinds of innovation, entrepreneurship and out-of-the-box thinking that are the hallmark of a SCI-Arc education. Dubbed the Magic Box, the 4,000-square-feet, 2-story digital fabrication lab will be built at the south end of the SCI-Arc building and will connect to the school's existing Robotics Lab and Analog Fabrication Shop to form the RAD Center—a one-of-its-kind, multi-dimensional facility providing access to several different methods of fabrication and assembly. The Magic Box will house three times as many high-speed laser cutters, 3D scanners and ABS plastic printers as are currently available to students and faculty.
"With the new Magic Box, SCI-Arc enlarges its capacity to produce conceptual and technical magic," says SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss.
The school is half-way through planning and on schedule to start construction in the beginning of 2014, and it looks like incoming students will walk through the doors of SCI-Arc' quarter-mile-long building and into the new robotics, analog and digital fabrication space next fall. And what they'll find will be impressive.
Embracing and integrating the most up-to-date technologies from the moment they become available, the lab will allow students to build, vacuum form or 3D print their models to life using a wide array of materials, from wax to translucents, to plastic, to flexible materials, to metal. These models would then undergo further experimentation with the help of 6-axis robots, which have already been in use at SCI-Arc for more than 2 years.
"By creating the Magic Box, SCI-Arc reinforces its most critical priority to prepare students to work with today's most revolutionary technologies, in an environment designed for tomorrow's world," says SCI-Arc Director of Academic Affairs Ming Fung, who oversees new research initiatives for the school.
SCI-Arc's new Magic Box is being built for change in a world in which change is constant. Together with the revamped woodshop and existing cutting edge robotics lab, the digital lab will provide a one-of-its-kind platform for research, experimentation and prototyping. But most importantly, it is designed to shape-shift as new generations of students make the building their home and new technologies yield new approaches to teaching and learning.
About SCI-Arc
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, accredited degree-granting institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. SCI-Arc's approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, most of whom are practicing architects, work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture. SCI-Arc faculty and leadership have garnered more than 500 national and international design awards and recognitions, including Progressive Architecture awards, American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and the prestigious Jencks and Pritzker architecture prizes. SCI-Arc is ranked 1st in computer applications and 2nd in design in the 2013 America's Best Architecture Schools survey from DesignIntelligence. SCI-Arc is located at 960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. www.sciarc.edu
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