Photos by Byron Blakeley
Architect: Gaurav Sharma
Fee: £5 Members /£8 non-Members
Friday 22 November, 10.45am
Meeting point: 36 Bedford Square
As part of AA Membership’s ongoing 10r Series of events looking at institutions and developments within 10 minutes walk of Bedford Square, Architect Gaurav Sharma, alongside curators and managers at the Institute, will lead a tour of the space and talk about its unique collection and activities. The Institute of Making is a cross-disciplinary research club for those interested in the made world: from makers of molecules to makers of buildings, synthetic skin to spacecraft, soup to diamonds, socks to cities. The home of the Institute of Making at UCL’s Bloomsbury campus has been created by adapting and inhabiting an existing delivery & service bay, including a 10-tonne platform lift & gantry crane. A range of materials and techniques and materials, new/ forgotten, cutting-edge/ traditional were deployed in the making of the space and its fitted and loose furniture.
The library contains over 1500 materials including uranium glass, steel cloth, magnetic liquid, concrete that can heal itself using embedded bacteria, and rock that acts as a naturally occurring optical fibre. Alongside the library sits the MakeSpace, which gives members the chance to boil, bake, turn, mill, mend, spin, print, cut, cast, drill, sand, scrape and make. The facilities include 3D printing, sewing machines, ovens, soldering irons and even a crane. The Institute as a whole aims to let users experience first hand the relationships between materials and tools that constitute processes of making.
Members can book a place either online or by calling the Membership office on 02078874034. Please note non-Members can book by phone only.
Image: Aerogel © UCL Institute of Making