Wood Shop, Metals Lab, Computer Lab, Printing Lab

The Art & Architecture Shop, also known as the Wood Shop, is a 6,000-square-foot studio at the Art & Architecture Building for students and faculty of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and Stamps School of Art and Design. It is both a research laboratory and a machine shop for working with various materials, including wood, plastic, and metal. Along with the more traditional means of manipulating material, the Wood Shop offers opportunities to work with vacuum forming of plastic materials in small and large formats and laser cutting.

As a research laboratory, the Wood Shop is dedicated to learning and research in design through making. Studio coordinators maintain the facility functionally and provide individual instruction on the safe and effective use of all available tools, equipment, and processes. The coordinators also offer the benefit of their personal experience to all shop users.

As a machine shop, the Wood Shop is fully equipped with several stations of the most commonly used material processing machines, such as band saws and sanders. The shop is home to an extensive collection of hand tools, both manual and powered. The shop also has a complement of plastics and metalworking equipment and two laser cutters for wood, paper, and plastics.

The Wood Shop studio coordinators provide all users with safety supervision, assistance in setting up operations, file preparations for laser work, material handling, millwork, and more.

Visit the A&A Shop Site for more information, including hours of operation, details about equipment, training, and more.

The Taubman College Metals Lab provides space, equipment, and training to incorporate metalworking and fabrication into the basic repertoire of design exploration, model making, and construction activity.

Taubman students are empowered to design and build metal fabrications at a range of scales, from small studio models, frames, and support brackets, to furniture, installations, and buildings. They learn essential metal fabrication skills such as welding, grinding and finishing, shearing and folding sheet metals, assembly of large frames and structures, bending metal rods and tubes, brazing, and soldering. They also gain valuable experience and confidence in the full range of project development from concept to schematic design, material sourcing and costing, detailing and adjustment for material tolerances, and production, fitting, and assembly.

The Metals Lab team is available to provide project development support and technical assistance through all phases of design, detailing, and fabrication for large and small projects for individuals, groups, studios, and faculty research.

The Metals Lab supports various welding technologies, including MIG (Metal Inert Gas), TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas), stick welding, and high- and low-temperature brazing. Additional equipment for cutting, bending, grinding, and finishing structural shapes and sheet metal allows for fabrication and exploratory work supporting studio and thesis work, research, and design-build projects.

Equipment

• 2 Miller 110v MIG welding workstations
• 1 Miller 380v MIG welding mobile workstation
• 1 Miller 350 Synchrowave LX TIG welding mobile workstation
• 1 Miller LSMW mobile spot welder
• 2 controlled descent horizontal metal band saws (one in Wood Shop)
• Vertical band saw (Wood Shop)
• High-production cold saw
• Metalwork drill press
• 3′ Shear 16g capacity (hand-operated)
• 4′ Shear 12g capacity (power-driven, located in Stamps Sculpture Studio)
• 3′ Break 16g capacity
• 4′ Break 14g capacity
• Grinding and finishing tools, saws, and associated power tools for jig-making, fabricating, and more

The Computer Lab features high-end, late-model computers available for drop-in or remote use by students.

Located in Room 2109 in the Art & Architecture Building, the Computer Lab provides students access to Taubman College’s most comprehensive software suite, including Rhino with Enscape and V-Ray renderers, Autodesk software, Creative Cloud software, ArcGIS Pro, Sketchup, Unreal Engine, and Unity.

Students can receive software and hardware support to continue work started in other specialized labs, including Taubman College’s Digital Fabrication and Robotics Lab (FABLab), the Taubman Visualization Lab (TVLab), and other campus facilities. Lab equipment also provides supplemental power when needed to support work on student laptops.

The Printing Lab in Room 2107A of the Art and Architecture Building is a comprehensive resource for printing services. Knowledgeable staff can assist with full-color printing for small and large-format projects, coil binding and stapling for booklets, and more. To submit a job or view orders, visit the online portal.

A self-service draft poster station is available for quick print jobs and document needs. The Printing Lab is also a licensed educational reseller of Rhinoceros 3D Modeling Software.

Taubman College faculty, staff, and students can borrow audio visual equipment from the Printing Lab. You can find the list of available equipment on the Taubman College Intranet. Faculty, staff and students can reserve equipment through the online reservation system.