The first OpenLab integrative studio has commenced!

The Center for Design Research Open Laboratory: Boston developed by CDR faculty in collaboration with the 2019 AIA Architecture Firm Award recipient, PAYETTE, located in Boston, Massachusetts, introduces you to the first Virginia Tech integrative studio in Boston, MA.

Students will interact with over 160 interdisciplinary design professionals through an immersive residency as they undertake a semester-long design research effort based on an industry-driven opportunity for technology development, transfer, or adoption. The program introduces students to the concept of Research as Practice.

Payette is an internationally recognized leader specializing in science and healthcare that utilizes a transdisciplinary collaborative approach to practices that embraces innovation. The Open Laboratory-Boston expands this notion by placing students face-to-face with real-world design challenges and providing them with the tools that will drive the future of architecture, engineering, and construction.

In extension to the formal scheduled studio and seminars, students are encouraged to take advantage of the intensive extracurricular opportunities offered in the Boston area, including public lectures at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT, and the Boston Society of Architects. Additionally, through a combination of self-guided and facilitated tours, students will participate in a series of excursions to historically significant buildings, current building sites, and contemporary buildings in the region.

Through this engagement, students will expand what is possible in the design practice by providing a vehicle for industry-responsive applied research that embodies a functional collaboration between academia, industry, and practice.