www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/csaddevelopment
CSAD to open Wales’ first official MIT Fab Lab CSAD’s new building will house Wales’ first Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) accredited Fab Lab at its core. We will be full members of the global Fab Lab network and this will be the first official UK Fab Lab attached to a university. The term ‘Fab Lab’ is short hand for fabrication laboratory. Fab Labs are a global network of local labs, linked through video conferencing technology. They enable invention and innovation by providing easy access to tools for digital fabrication and prototyping. The lab will extend the School’s existing digital prototyping facilities to offer computer controlled circuit board manufacture, a large CNC router capable of dealing with 2.4 metre X 1.2 metre sheets, a large and powerful laser cutter as well as numerous CNC machines, various 3D printers, large format digital printers, a CNC vinyl cutter, 3D scanners and so on. Flexible provision will ensure that our students have access to world class facilities which we will also be able to offer to members of the public when our students don’t need them.
CSAD’s strategy of linking enterprise, research and learning & teaching missions will mean that the new Fab Lab will be at the core of exciting activities. It will, for example be used as a base from which students can study optional modules in robotics, musical instrument design or computer embedded product prototyping. At the same time, it will serve as a base from which many of the School’s research staff and PhD students can operate and will be a rich public resource for access to the latest digital fabrication techniques. Continual Professional Development courses will be available and the Fab Lab’s facilities will also be available to provide direct access to the machines themselves. A key part of CSAD’s Fab Lab strategy is that we will be able to offer our own graduates access to the best possible base from which to start their own businesses, giving them continued access to the machines they used during their time with us. Thus the university’s facilities will become the base from which our graduates can begin their professional lives. We aim to make that partnership a long and fruitful one.
Facilities in the new building The new facilities will house a suite of modern, well-designed and safety-conscious workshop areas. These will be provided on one whole floor of the new build and a remodelled floor of our existing accommodation. Wood Area New and traditional machines are supported by highly skilled and motivated practitioners. The workshop will provide students from all courses with the opportunity to work with one of the most elemental of all materials in either self-directed or guided sessions. Metals The centre of our metals workshop is our new foundry and hot metal space, run by our RCA trained Technician Demonstrator. Pieces, both large and small, will be cast and used by a variety of different artists and makers. The workshop will also house a range of Mig & Tig welders, plus plasma cutters along with drilling, bending and milling facilities.
Ceramics The ceramics workshops will house well equipped kiln, plaster, clay and glaze areas. The workshop will also house glass slumping kilns, clay and plaster preparation facilities. Externally, students will have access to soda kilns and Raku firing facilities. This forward-looking facility reinforces CSAD’s commitment to this, the largest ceramics centre in Europe. Textiles Our facilities in this area employ traditional techniques alongside up-to-date digital printing and laser cutting equipment. Professional sewing machines, over-lockers and digital embroiders are employed by a wide range of CSAD courses. Printing workshop Students have access to a range of printing techniques including screen-printing, intaglio, etching, engraving and stone litho facilities. The workshop will continue to have a complete high pressure screen cleaning washing area with adjacent equipment for drying and developing the largest of screens.
our new home ready 2014
Photo-media This area will house a darkroom with production of RC and fibre based silver gelatin prints; Photograms; Cyanotypes and Liquid Light. In the film developing room, you can process black and white film 35mm 120 or 5X4. Colour is handled via our Colour Machine for production of colour RA4 Prints from negatives. Digital Printing is carried out on Epson 9500 large format and Canon 950 A3 printers. In our studios you can expect to find continuous lighting and portable flash equipment, our copystand can be used to document all types of artwork using a digital camera. Also available is an infinity background for documenting small to medium sized objects plus a large flash unit for studio photographs. Our stores contain a large selection of 35mm film cameras and compact digital cameras for student loan, including 5X4 Film cameras, 120 film camera, DV tape video cameras and HD video camera equipment.
Audio and Video For video work we have camcorders, lighting, microphones and audio recorders available for use. There is bookable studio space, where we also do basic green screen work. We currently have four Mac based Video Edit Suites running Final Cut Pro Studio. In our Audio suite we have a Mac based recording studio utilising Pro-Tools. We have a selection of instruments, amplifiers, microphones and outboard gear. Our Macs run Pro-tools, Logic and Reason, 3D workshops and Fablab. This facility will continue to develop, in line with technology. Here you will find a suite of CNC milling machines, laser cutters, routers, and 3D printers. Add to this our area for developing electronic control systems and you have an area where concepts can become reality in a short time.
Our new home
In 2014, the School will move to the new campus designed by award winning architects Austin-Smith:Lord, who also designed the Riverfront Theatre, Newport as well as the Cardiff School of Management - one of the most pleasing and useful spaces in Cardiff. Consolidating the split site campus allows the School to facilitate a better experience for students as well as staff.
In 2015, the Cardiff School of Art and Design will be celebrating its 150th anniversary. At the heart of the city since its opening in 1865, the School which is one of the oldest in the UK has had many homes.
“The development has been designed around the research and teaching requirements of CSAD. As a result, it is sensitive to the ways we work through making and critical thinking,” Kavanagh explains, “The design fully recognizes that CSAD represents higher education at its most unconventional, intellectually challenging and creatively dynamic. The design allows for the fact that we are messy, noisy, technology-driven, talkative, hugely hard working, and resource-intensive: not to mention, inventive, pragmatic, constantly developing and generally maverick.”
Beginning life in the oak rooms above the Royal and Morgan Arcades, it is the oldest part of Cardiff Metropolitan University. Since its first site, it has also been housed in The Friary building, near Cardiff’s New Theatre, and in the purpose built Howard Gardens Campus, opened by the Earl of Snowdon on 13 May 1970.
But the move doesn’t just mark the physical progression of the School of Art & Design’s history. It also indicates a renewed commitment to progression in research, teaching and innovation.
Gaynor Kavanagh Dean of CSAD
“Each location has marked a step forward and a turning point. No less a turning point is Cardiff Metropolitan University’s decision to consolidate the School on one site, the Llandaff Campus, through an investment of £14m in the provision of a new building and the refurbishment of existing accommodation,” says Dean of Cardiff School of Art and Design, Professor Gaynor Kavanagh. “The planned development means a tremendous amount to the School. Above all else, it represents to us the faith and confidence placed in CSAD by the University’s Governors, who recognise the School as a centre of excellence and high performance in both research and teaching. We are hugely grateful to them for this and for their continued interest and engagement with the School.”
A lead partner in the Wales Institute of Research in Art and Design, the School will deliver a strong submission to the Research Excellence Framework in late 2014 to follow the success of its ranking of 11th in Research Power in art and design in the UK in the REF’s predecessor, the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008. On this last point, Kavanagh says, “The allocation of space in the new accommodation will enable the continuation of our varied and groundbreaking research work, especially that where we are in partnership with other universities including Lancaster, Birmingham, and Cardiff, in particular Cardiff Medical School. Our commitment to science in the context of our disciplines remains strong and hopefully will be well evident at the Science Pavilion of the next National Eisteddfod.”
The move will come in the third year of delivering the School’s new undergraduate curriculum, designed to enable students to work across the disciplines, whilst increasing their depth of engagement with their own. “Our students will be able to choose a period studying abroad with partners in India, Zambia, Venice, America or Korea, the Dean says. “They will also be able to choose to undertake a management module or experience a work placement or work with one of our research professors or principals. We will also have a much larger masters and research degree community, with many more students studying for MFA, MDes and Professional Doctorates in Art or Design.” Moving to a new location also allows the School to take new steps towards providing the energy and momentum for innovation in teaching with a host of exciting plans being made to provide facilities that will mark it as a truly modern faculty. Most notably, a partnership with the Samsung Art and Design Institute in Seoul will allow students to transcend international borders
and still cycle home from the campus in the evening. “We plan to develop video-linked teaching facilities with Samsung Art and Design Institute, enhancing our joint delivery of our MDes, with particular emphasis on product design,” Kavanagh says. “We’re also looking forward to being able to integrate high-end prefabrication facilities into our workshops, linked to the global FabLab network, to meet the proven needs of industry. This will also be deployed to enable local school children with an interest in design and technology to connect with classes as far flung as Boston, Barcelona and Tehran.” The cross-disciplinary aspect of the new curriculum is very much enabled with the new shared studios that are being designed. These will be able to accommodate the School’s growing interest in the way that science, art and design relate to one another with debates and engagement.
engagement with art, design, making and architecture from perspectives other than those that are western, white and frequently male,” Kavanagh continues to confirm the School’s commitment to providing education in art and design to a wide audience.
“We will be able to action our developing plans for part-time degrees, where the emphasis will be on multi-culturalism and
“Our students love Cardiff, many choosing once graduated to stay to set up businesses and their own practices here. Our staff
Undergraduate
Taught Postgraduate
► Cardiff Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art & Design) (Bridgend) ► Foundation Degree in Contemporary Furniture Design (Bridgend) ► Foundation Degree in Ceramics (Barry) ► Foundation Degree in Textiles (Barry) ► Foundation Degree in Graphic Communication (Barry) ► HND Architectural Design & Technology (CSAD) ► HND Design for Interactive Media (Bridgend)
► Postgraduate Certificate in Professional & Research Skills: Art & Design
► BSc (hons) Architectural Design & Technology ► BA (hons) Artist Designer: Maker ► BA (hons) Fine Art ► BA (hons) Ceramics ► BA (hons) Textiles ► BA (hons) Graphic Communication ► BA (hons) Illustration ► BA (hons) Product Design ► BSc (hons) Product Design ► BA (hons) Photographic Practice (Bridgend College)
contribute to the vibrancy of the creative environments of both Cardiff and Wales as a whole. Collectively, we will remain part of the very fabric of what makes this city and this country special,” she says as if to sum up. “We are ready for anything the future throws at us, and we’ll be addressing it from a wonderfully designed and created new base in Llandaff. We can’t wait.”
Project Team Cardiff Metropolitan
University Estates Department Austin Smith: Lord Wilmott Dixon Davies Langdon Ove-Arup Silcock Dawson
► MA Ceramics ► MSc Advanced Product Design ► Master of Fine Art (MFA) ► Master of Design (MDes)
www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/csad www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/csaddevelopment
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MA (Art & Design) Fine Art MA (Art & Design) Communication MA (Art & Design) Textiles MA (Art & Design) Art & Science MA (Art & Design) Philosophy MA (Art & Design) Ecologies
Cardiff School of Art & Design Howard Gardens Campus Cardiff CF24 0SP Tel: +44 (0)29 2041 6154 Fax: +44 (0)29 2041 6944 email: csad@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Research Degrees ► ► ► ► ►
MPhil PhD Professional Doctorate: Art Professional Doctorate: Design Professional Doctorate: Ecological Building Practices
Cardiff School of Art & Design Llandaff Campus Western Avenue Cardiff CF5 2YB Tel: +44 (0)29 2041 6637 Fax: +44 (0)29 2041 6640 email: csad@cardiffmet.ac.uk