Celebrating Digital Craft at CCA

At this event, CCA Digital Craft Lab (DCL) Co-Directors Jason Kelly Johnson and Negar Kalantar, along with students and recent alumni, will reflect on the lab’s history, showcase its research, and discuss its future as it transitions into a dedicated new facility on CCA’s expanded campus.

The CCA Digital Craft Lab supports and promotes advanced research in architectural design, digital fabrication, material science, data visualization and robotics. The work of the lab sits at the intersection of the arts and sciences and is committed to engaging the pressing issues of our time through experimentation, pedagogy and outreach. The lab routinely collaborates with engineers, scientists, artists, architects and designers to develop innovative frameworks and prototypes for engaging important issues related to sustainable building practices, ecology, material innovation, and entrepreneurship. The DCL works with industry partners, sponsors and collaborators to support the activities of the lab. Associated design studios, seminars and the post-professional MAAD Digital Craft degree focus on contemporary digital design technologies.

Dr. Negar Kalantar is an associate professor and Co-Director of the Digital Craft Lab. Her research and practice blend architecture, science, and engineering, focusing on transformable design principles to create adaptive building components and spaces that respond to users and environments in real-time. Her current work explores additive manufacturing (3D printing) and robotics as catalysts for innovation in interactive and responsive environments. By bridging advancements in additive manufacturing with large-scale structures, her research aims to revolutionize not only how infrastructures are constructed today but also how they are designed and built in the future, from concept to completion.

Jason Kelly Johnson is a Full Professor at CCA, Co-Director of the Digital Craft Lab, and a founding design partner of FUTUREFORMS, a San Francisco-based experimental design and research office. His award-winning work explores the intersections of art, design, public space, and advanced technologies like robotics and responsive systems. Recent projects range from fine art objects and sculptural pavilions to large-scale urban installations, including "Lightweave" in Washington, DC, which received the Architect's Newspaper "Best Of Design" Award and the "Architecture Masterprize" in 2019.

Host or Publisher California College of the Arts