The Rapid Architectural Prototyping Laboratory is a do-it-yourself workshop for students and researchers at the Department of Architecture who need to build prototypes and models for their projects. We offer various tools, workshops, and expertise spanning several disciplines and scales.
Our key difference from other workshops is our focus on enabling people to use our facilities independently. We provide education and facilitate processes to help our users work towards their individual goals.
Converting ideas into models and prototypes is the core of our everyday work. This process needs to be direct, intuitive, and elegant.
We understand conceptual thinking, methodology, and design as connected entities that come together in the practice of making. Making is a set of skills relating to material, construction, tectonics, perception, expression, and innovation. While making, we strive for an equilibrium of all these aspects and acknowledge the different agencies of human and non-human entities. It is, therefore, not our primary goal to solve problems but to help our users reframe their questions in a way that fosters a critical assessment of their project, opening new perspectives on outcomes and impact.
The primary mission that the Raplab as a centralized organizational unit within the department of architecture has can be summarized by the following points:
Planning opening hours, introductions, maintenance cycles, and safety reviews. Consulting for the department, ETH organizations, and other stakeholders on strategic projects to develop sustainable organizational concepts with the best workplace safety and education practices.
Introductions, tutorials, classes, and workshops to develop basic foundational knowledge in our student body on how to use the Raplab and, more specifically, how to use models and prototypes for testing and the design of their projects.
The Raplab offers regular Seminar Weeks and an Elective Class – Model and Design, as part of our teaching activities open to all students interested in working and exploring new materials, processes, and model-related design methods.
Current technologies, new processes, machines, new materials, and future-proof strategic development of the workshop environment with a particular focus on flexible tactics to accommodate the needs of our ever-changing faculty.
Development of standards and guidelines for the safe operation of tools and machines in teaching settings.
We are educating chairs and students on how to approach design questions, project management, and strategic development of aspects related to making.
Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly processes to ensure smooth operation and preservation of the value of our infrastructure.