Fairleigh Dickinson University
Animation Lab Renovation
Project Overview
The new home for Fairleigh Dickinson University’s programs in animation and video games both facilitates and celebrates a 21st-century arts education, in a dramatic, graphic space that manifests a virtual world inside the real one.
The university’s first major investment in renewing its aging 1960s arts building, the new animation lab combines a formerly separate classroom and computer lab into a single multifunctional space. Now, glass walls invite passersby into a community of 3D modeling and making, supported by a computer lab, 3D-printing lab and a flexible space with whiteboards for collaborative work, student critiques or motion capture.
The environment embodies the digital spaces in which students work, thanks to high-contrast colors, the gridded ceiling and the wireframe graphic on the feature wall.
It also supports student comfort and wellbeing with ergonomic gaming chairs and adjustable sit-to-stand workstations. The dark background and semi-diffused lighting reduce eyestrain and glare on computer monitors.
To promote the curriculum, students’ own designs are displayed and regularly swapped out, using PVC-printed graphics mounted with double-sided tape on the laminated-panel feature wall.
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