Design research focused on fabrication and the link between digital forms of craft is establishing an identity through the disciplines of architecture. Weaving through multiple stages of the design process, digital craft is becoming a critical component to Architecture/Construction/Engineering (ACE), modelling, material studies, ecological mapping, systems articulation, through to visual theory.  

Over the past ten years, as Fabrication laboratories in universities throughout North America and abroad have grown and refined their role in support of design research and technology, the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba has maintained a strong workshop that is geared toward more traditional ways of working with wood and processes of manual production. Prior to the availability of appropriate space, the emphasis on these traditional methods of production ultimately limited individuals on what type of tools and approaches they were able to use to produce their projects.

With ongoing purchases of equipment through the TIPF committee the students of the faculty of Architecture have taken an active role in their own education and have invested in the future of making within the faculty of Architecture. In the basement of the J.A Russell building, the digital FABrication Lab will be an interdisciplinary design research laboratory, which will support student education and community relations in the realm of digital craft.