We had an exciting cake Wednesday here at The Guild this week, with special guests from Bristol University, who installed their latest creation- PhysiCAD (physical Computer-aided-design).

The PhysiCAD machine is a new tool in spatial design, it’s aim is to be the physical link between your imagination and software. The machine currently projects a room (preloaded with The Guild’s Coworking rooms) down onto a lego board, you can be use the bricks (preloaded into the machine) to represent tables, chairs, storage and this will appear on your CAD diagram.

The benefit can be a more collaborative and real time design process and this is something Dr Duncan Boa and colleague David Mathias are very interested in, Duncan says ‘“People find it hard to interpret 2D plan drawings. Architects are used to it, but a non-expert finds it quite challenging. So by having construction kits (e.g. Lego) it gives a physicality and tangibility to what you are creating in the design process. Plus Lego is really fun!”.

After a day of building, PhysiCAD was unveiled to our members and guests at a launch event in our new Diner. It was great to see so many members getting involved and Duncan and David were around to answer everyone’s questions. Thanks to Bristol University for bringing their project to The Guild and helping us redesign our working environments, we’ll keep you updates with what we create.

TechSpark also came along and wrote this great article on the fun and games of PhysiCAD

Dr Duncan Boa will be in every Wednesday for the PhysiCAD’s January residency, so do come along to The Guild at 3pm if you would to find out more.