Workshop

The School of Architecture Workshop, coordinated and operated by Chief Technician David Speller, provides an important resource for students enrolled in our professional and post-professional programs to carry out projects forming part or all of the requirements of a variety of different courses in the School. The Workshop plays a particularly important role in the design studios, and studios at every level of the program include course work based in part, and occasionally entirely, in the Workshop. The School is well known for the high quality of work produced by students in the Shop, and for the effectiveness with which the Workshop integrates and supports teaching and research at all levels of the program.

Students enjoy access to stations for working with wood, wood products, metal, plaster, glass and plastics, as well as facilities for casting, mould-making, sandblasting and spray finishing. A compressed air supply enables the use of air tools throughout.

Workshop resources include two installations providing students with high-quality Rapid Prototyping and Fabrication facilities. The workshop now includes a space of 20 square metres dedicated to a 60-watt Universal Laser Cutter, a Stratasys 3000 fused depositional modeller, and the computers required to control them. The laser cutter is used to cut and engrave a wide variety of 18”x31” sheet materials, of which the most common are acrylic, MDF, plywood, matt card, chipboard, and styrene. The fused depositional modeller, or rapid prototyping machine, builds models in three dimensions (10”x10”x10”) in ABS, high impact ABS, elastomeric material or investment casting wax.

Using fused deposition modelling technology, students can build models from the following materials : ABS, high-impact ABS, elastomer, or investment casting wax. The files must be in stereolithographic (stl) format, a common export option in most CAD packages.

The Workshop also maintains a Supply Store which allows students to purchase materials through the use of student purchase cards. The Supply Store maintains a stock of the most often used materials for sale to students, while most common modeling and building materials can be ordered through the Workshop within a few delivery days.