We've just wrapped up fabrication of the final facade prototypes for the "Architecture In The Making" advanced Integrated Building Design studio that Adam Marcus is teaching this semester at California College of the Arts, along with colleagues Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones. The studio's research is focused on the notion of making, both programmatically and pedagogically. Students are designing new buildings for Berkeley's REALM Charter School, which includes the innovative design-build Studio H program in its curriculum. In addition to their programmatic and spatial speculations on the role of making within a high school curriculum, the studio is has been prototyping envelope systems that reinforce the overall architectural argument of each project. We're working primarily with 18 ga. sheet steel to fabricate full-scale prototypes that demonstrate the highly performative qualities of each envelope system, and have had the good fortune to collaborate with the terrific Autodesk / Instructables Pier 9 Workshop, where Adam is an Artist-in-Residence this year. See the gallery above for some photographs of the fabrication process.

The prototypes will be on display at the studio's final review on Saturday, May 3 (details here). They will subsequently be exhibited at CCA's booth at Maker Faire on May 17-18, and then permanently installed at Pier 9 in San Francisco.