The Department provides dedicated studio spaces for every student in a range of buildings close to or in the Faculty. The studios are fully equipped with desktop machines, storage facilities, tea and coffee making facilities, drawing boards and shared desktop machines CAD software.
The Department aims to provide all the software students require to carry out their studiowork free-of-charge including access to ADOBE creative suite, AutoCAD, Rhino and video editing software. Arrangements vary. Some software is available on 25 dedicated shared machines in the studios, while other software is available as individual licences.
The brand new Digital Fabrication Laboratory, housed in the Ground Floor of the Dyson Building provides students with access to state-of-the art 3D printing machinery, allowing students to produce rapid prototypes and laser cut parts for architectural models. The new Workshop is fully equipped with woodworking tools (saws, planers, drills and sanders) and two CNC routers to allow students to fabricate models from wood and other materials.
Together these facilities provide our students with workshop places which they can access anytime they need during working hours, a ratio of workshop to student numbers of 1:5 which is one of the highest ratios in the country.
The workshop is staffed by trained teaching technicians who working with studio teachers will guide you in a range of modelmaking techniques and help you to determine which best suit your project and aims and provide you with the necessary training and skills. All students go through basic induction course when they arrive and training courses on particular machines are provided throughout the year.
We are conscious that studiowork can be expensive. At Cambridge we provide you with all the materials you need to complete the course free-of-charge The costs of modelmaking and printing for all studiowork are covered in your fees. Materials are distributed from the Digital Fabrication Laboratory
In general studiowork is submitted digitally to save paper. However printing is carried out for exhibitions and interim crits and the costs of this are covered in your fees. Printing (when required) is reimbursed through your University card.
The department has its own on-site reprographics facilities including A0 bright white, heavyweight and tracing paper plotters, scanners and 3D printing. While most students bring their own computing equipment, we also have on-site computing facilities. These are expanded and centralised in the new Digital Fabrication Laboratory. Our dedicated digital support team are on hand to help you with all your printing and reprographic needs throughout the year.
The Department of Architecture has one for the best architectural libraries in the country which is stocked with all of the books that you will need to complete your undergraduate coursework and one of the finest collections of rare architectural books in the world. In addition, you will have access to the vast range of works housed by the University Library, college libraries and subject-specific libraries found around Cambridge.