The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) announced plans for a new digital prototyping laboratory, which the school expects to begin constructing early next year.
The new 4,000-square-feet laboratory, named “The Magic Box,” will be an additional structure at the south end of the school’s narrow, quarter-mile long building designed by Harrison Albright—formerly the Santa Fe Freight Depot—which the school purchased in 2011.
Eric Owen Moss, FAIA, SCI-Arc’s director, is the architect behind the new two-story Magic Box, which will house computer numerical control (CNC) equipment including 3D scanners, ABS plastic printers, and high-speed laser cutters. The structure will also link the downtown Los Angeles school’s current Analog Shop and Robot House, creating the school’s new RAD Center, “a one-of-its-kind, multi-dimensional facility,” according to a school news release. SCI-Arc plans to have the new laboratory open for students next fall.
