A robotics lab

Facilities

A Culture of Making

The School of Architecture facilities provide students with the opportunity to develop hands-on skills through coursework and self-directed projects.

A stroll through our two historic buildings reveals students and faculty teaching a robot to plasma-cut metal in the dFAB Lab, developing pitch-perfect climate-control apps in the Intelligent Workplace, or hand-crafting furniture in the Shop. All facilities welcome undergraduate and graduate students from day one, ensuring that our students are as expert with a table saw as with Rhino.

Students and library staff discuss an archival print in the library.

Architecture Library

The library and archives for the School of Architecture are located on the third floor of Hunt Library. The library offers expert consulting to all faculty, staff, and students. The library staff are information specialists with extensive knowledge of disciplinary information sources and methods who can help with everything from a first-year assignment to dissertation work and grant-funded research projects.

Shaping the Future of Design text over an image of a laptop screen displaying a colorful image.

Computational Design Lab (CoDe Lab)

The Computational Design Lab (CoDe Lab) at Carnegie Mellon University is a multidisciplinary collaborative formed to address complex issues at the intersection of art, design, architecture, and engineering. This proto-maker space is equipped with computational, fabrication, and prototyping resources to support a curriculum based on post-disciplinary education.

Photograph of robotic machinery

Design Fabrication Lab (dFab)

The School of Architecture's Design Fabrication Lab (dFAB) serves as a bridge between the digital and physical. dFAB focuses on the use of advanced digitally-driven design, prototyping, and manufacturing equipment, and fosters a context through which students and faculty are better equipped to probe the potential of pervasive digital design and fabrication. dFAB equips young professionals with the skills to thrive in an increasingly fluid and technologically sophisticated model of practice.

Photograph of the interior of the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace at CMU

Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW)

The Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW) is a living laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University dedicated to advancing innovations in building enclosure, mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, and interior systems, as well as their integration for individual productivity, organizational adaptability, human comfort and health, as well as the highest level of environmental sustainability. The IW is home to the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) but is open to all interested students.

Close-up image of carpentry work

The Shop

The Shop provides Carnegie Mellon Architecture students with access to a wide variety of equipment and the guidance of an expert staff. Introductory shop training, integrated with core undergraduate courses, facilitates exploration of fundamental tool and material interactions that are common across technologies. Craft-centered elective courses allow advanced students to practice iterative design principles through the creation of finished decorative and functional objects.