i.M.A.D.E :: innovation in manufacturing + design :: the new site of the Institute for Digital FabricationBall State University
iMADE@i-m-a-d-e.org

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reBarn
reBarn

275 pieces of barn wood + 350 unique aluminum components + CNC milling + waterjet cutting + students + industry partners + the community
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reBarn

NEW Graduate Certificate Program
NEW Graduate Certificate Program

The Graduate Certificate Program in Digital Design and Fabrication is designed to prepare students to develop a skill set with digital information, while at the same time directly engage industry partners in an open and collaborative environment. This Program is inherently interdisciplinary and is targeted at design professionals, fabricators, and manufacturers. The bundle of courses is intended to introduce students to the interconnections between disciplines through the management of digital information, reinforcing the total design through production process.

2010 Research Fellows: PROJECTiONE
2010 Research Fellows: PROJECTiONE

Recent Ball State Architecture and i.M.A.D.E graduates, PROJECTiONE, received a Citation for their BitMaps project in Architect Magazine’s R+D Awards. Two of PROJECTiONE’s principals, Adam Buente and Kyle Perry, are Institute Research Fellows this fall.

Architect Magazine Rankings
Architect Magazine Rankings

Ball State’s College of Architecture and Planning is one of three schools identified for excellence in Digital Design and Fabrication by Architect Magazine.

Titanium Bridge Design Competition Finalists
Titanium Bridge Design Competition Finalists

A three student team from Ball State’s Department of Architecture and the Institute for Digital Fabrication was recognized as a one of five finalists in the Student Titanium Pedestrian Bridge Design Competition, sponsored by the Defense Metals Technology Center and the University of Akron.

Discovery Grant :: Indiana Limestone Research
Discovery Grant :: Indiana Limestone Research

i.M.A.D.E was recently awarded a Discovery Foundation Grant for continuing research on integrating digital technologies with the Indiana Limestone industry. Our proposal, entitled  “Smart Stone”, will apply emerging digital design technologies to increase efficiencies and minimize waste in the manufacturing of limestone building components. We aim to address a very old, but persistent problem in [...]

PROJECTiONE Featured on Dwell.com
PROJECTiONE Featured on Dwell.com

PROJECTiONE’s “LIGHTFORMS” project featured on Dwell.com. PROJECTiONE is a design collective composed of four Ball State Architecture thesis students and last year’s i.M.A.D.E Graduate Student Fellows.

Manufacturing Material Effects Book
Manufacturing Material Effects Book

Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture, edited by Branko Kolarevic and Kevin R. Klinger and published by Routledge. Designers are becoming more directly involved in the fabrication process from the earliest stages of design. This book showcases the design and research work by some of the leading designers, makers and thinkers today. This highly illustrated text brings together a wealth of information and numerous examples from practice which will appeal to both students and practitioners.

Spot on Schools Exhibition
Spot on Schools Exhibition

9-17 July
i.M.A.D.E exhibits work at the Beyond Media Festival in Florence, Italy.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis Motor Speedway

As a part of the College of Architecture and Planning’s Master of Architecture degree program, a six-week architecture design studio project included proposing a hypothetical renovation and expansion of the existing Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum. The intentions were to spark a discussion about how architecture can align with the legacy of innovation inspired by the [...]

RTKL
RTKL

i.M.A.D.E wishes to thank Kevin Frank and Alexi Karavokiris, designers from RTKL Associates in Chicago, for being guest critics during the SpeedwayStudio.

Workshop: University of Calgary
Workshop: University of Calgary

i.M.A.D.E was invited to conduct a series of workshops at the University of Calgary’s Environmental Design Faculty.

Klinger: SIGraDi Keynote
Klinger: SIGraDi Keynote

Kevin Klinger delivers the keynote lecture at the 2009 Iberoamerican Society of Digital Graphics (SIGraDi) Conference on November 18, 2009 at the FAU Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Sao Paulo, Brasil. Klinger’s lecture was entitled: “Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture.”
Additionally, Klinger presented a paper at the conference entitled: “Digital Design through Production Pedagogy: [...]

Lecture: Florida Atlantic University
Lecture: Florida Atlantic University

Kevin Klinger delivers a lecture entitled: “Manufacturing Material Effects and the Institute for Digital Fabrication, Ball State University” at Florida Atlantic University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on November 24, 2009.

Lecture: Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Lecture: Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Kevin Klinger delivers a lecture entitled: “Manufacturing Material Effects and the Institute for Digital Fabrication, Ball State University” at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas: Unicamp in Campinas, Brasil on November 19, 2009.

Lecture: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Lecture: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Kevin Klinger delivers a lecture entitled: “Manufacturing Material Effects and the Institute for Digital Fabrication, Ball State University” at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil on November 13, 2009.

ACADIA 2009
ACADIA 2009

Mahesh Senagala and Joshua Vermillion present their paper entitled “An Inconvenient Studio” at the 2009 ACADIA Conference in Chicago.

i.M.A.D.E mentioned in The Architectural Review
i.M.A.D.E mentioned in The Architectural Review

i.M.A.D.E Director, Kevin Klinger, was quoted in the September 2009 issue of The Architectural Review. The article, written by Karin Templin, recounts the work on display at the Beyond Media Festival in Florence, Italy (July 2009).

Lecture: California Polytechnic State University
Lecture: California Polytechnic State University

Kevin Klinger gives a lecture at California Polytechnic State University’s (San Luis Obispo) College of Architecture and Environmental Design on October 9, 2009. More information on Klinger’s lecture and Cal Poly’s lecture series (entitled: “Integrated Practices”) can be found here.

Smart Scrap
Smart Scrap

The Institute for Digital Fabrication at Ball State University are testing ecological design strategies for the building industry following a generous Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Award. The research uses a digital database of component pieces from available scrap material, digitally catalogs waste products from the building industry specifically the [...]

Morpholuminescence
Morpholuminescence

Developed by students from “An Inconvenient Studio”, MorphoLuminescence utilizes an understanding of fashion photography to find its form and provide optimized lighting, enhancing the experience of trying on clothing.  A three-point lighting set up is commonly used by fashion photographers, arranging a bright key light above eye level, in combination with softer fill and back [...]

Arcus Animus
Arcus Animus

Arcus Animus is a kinetic mesh system designed by Waterloo Architecture/Philip Beesley Architect Inc., in collaboration with Ball State’s Inconvenient Studio/i.M.A.D.E (Senagala/Vermilion) and Pratt Institute Epithelium Studio (Beesley/Sarrach/Wang). Fabricated and installed in four days, the hanging, layered meshwork composed of impact-resistant acrylic, bamboo, and mylar components reacts to human occupation interpreted by arrayed proximity sensors. [...]

An Inconvenient Studio
An Inconvenient Studio

In spring 2009, An Inconvenient Studio was conducted at Ball State University with an aim to innovate through active strategies in environmental design (in distinction to passive design), digital technologies, robotics, interactive architecture, and collaborative design approaches that challenge conventional models of studio education. Known by many names (interactive architecture, responsive architecture, smart environments, intelligent [...]

Philip Beesley : Workshop + Lecture
Philip Beesley : Workshop + Lecture

Philip Beesley from Waterloo Architecture/Philip Beesley Architect Inc. visited Ball State along with Brad Rothenberg of Pratt Institute to conduct a physical computing workshop for An Inconvenient Studio. The resulting installation from this four-day workshop is a kinetic mesh system entitled Arcus Animus.
The hanging, layered meshwork composed of impact-resistant acrylic, bamboo, and mylar components reacts to human [...]


i.M.A.D.E INFO
i.M.A.D.E acts as a catalyst of digital design and fabrication techniques for both industry and education related to architecture and allied arts. Through immersive projects deploying interdisciplinary, applied design and fabrication research, the institute is a conduit between students, design professionals, and the manufacturing sector.
As an institute within Ball State University, i.M.A.D.E supports curricular components offering expertise with state-of -the-art software and devices using simulation, analysis, fabrication, and a rigorous examination of the craft inherent in digital design and production. With strategic industry partners, students test knowledge through team-based projects dealing with the translation of bits into atoms, shifting scales between models, prototypes, 1:1 construction, and the development of solutions to real problems by managing a complex set of design constraints.