SCI-Arc Planning New Digital Fabrication Lab

Called the Magic Box, the new prototyping lab will complete the RAD Center.

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A rendering of the new Magic Box lab.

Courtesy of SCI-Arc

A rendering of the new Magic Box lab.

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 Albrightformerly the Santa Fe Freight Depotwhich 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.


About the Author

Sara Johnson

Sara Johnson is the former associate editor, design news at ARCHITECT. Previously, she was a fellow at CityLab. Her work has also appeared in San Francisco, San Francisco Brides, California Brides, DCist, Patchwork Nation, and The Christian Science Monitor.

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