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Wilcox Receives $75,000 Grant to Fund Capstone Studio

Wilcox Receives $75,000 Grant to Fund Capstone Studio

On November 30, the PCI Foundation awarded Associate Professor Glenn Wilcox and Taubman College the PCI Instructional Project (Studio) grant. This grant will fund a $25,000/year portion of the studio cost for the Capstone Studio commencing in January 2016 for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018).

The studio is called “Capstone in Digital Technologies: Investigations in Precast Concrete” and will be the final studio for the Masters in Science in Architecture Digital Technologies (MSDT). The grant allows Taubman College to develop an engagement with industry, as a strategy for learning about construction technology and the precast construction industry, in particular through the design and fabrication of full-scale architectural components.  Taubman College will be partnering with Kerkstra Precast from Grandville, MI.  The collaboration with industry will expose students to the range of concerns when developing new products linked to new technologies, advanced materials, robotic fabrication, and innovative business approaches. Situated as the capstone studio in the post-professional, research-based MSDT degree, it’s poised to consider the design and production of precast architecture as a form of advanced building research. The ultimate goal of the studio is the full scale production of precast building elements aggregated into assembled prototypical and experimental building proposals.

Along with Wilcox, Assistant Professor Wes McGee and Associate Dean and Professor Karl Daubmann will serve as critics and advisors as the studio engages the full breadth of resources available at Taubman College, leveraging the power of computationally-based design and numerically-controlled machines towards new methodologies, materials, and systems of production.

To learn more about the MSDT program: https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/architecture/degrees/master-science/digital-technologies