Digital Craft Lab Finds a New Home at CCA’s Expanded Campus

On October 28, 2024, the Digital Craft Lab (DCL) at California College of the Arts (CCA) officially opened its new dedicated space, marking a significant milestone in the lab’s ongoing evolution. The event featured a keynote discussion by DCL Co-Directors Professor Jason Kelly Johnson and Associate Professor Dr. Negar Kalantar, who reflected on the lab’s history, shared research insights, and outlined future directions for the lab in its expanded facilities.

The opening was attended by CCA President David House, along with a diverse audience from industry, academia, alumni, and students, underscoring the lab’s strong interdisciplinary and professional connections.

The new DCL space is a state-of-the-art research and teaching environment equipped with industrial robotic arms, 3D printers, and clay printing technology, supporting a wide range of computational design, digital fabrication, and material innovation projects. With these advanced tools, the lab is poised to tackle pressing global challenges such as sustainability, carbon emissions reduction, and material efficiency.

Professor Jason Kelly Johnson introduced the concept of the "New Constructivist Agenda", emphasizing how CCA’s decade-long explorations at the intersection of computation and craft have shaped a new vision for architecture, art, and design education. Professor Negar Kalantar highlighted the transformative potential of robotics and AI in sustainable design, demonstrating how computational tools, material research, and industry-academia collaborations can drive innovation and responsible practices in the built environment.