TrakLab Upgrade at UCA CResCa Strand 1

UCA Canterbury School of Architecture and Design (CSAD) has a distinctive approach to architectural and spatial design education and research. It is explicitly outward-facing within East-Kent networks of architectural and design practice. In 2014 CSAD's facilities were augmented by 'TrakLab', providing advanced digital recording, scanning, movement tracking, and augmented/virtual reality. The resulting hybrid creative processes, translating tactile and material making into digital representation and analysis, enriched CSAD's approaches to education and research, and industry uptake of advanced digital techniques.

This investment for an upgraded TrakLab will impact within UCA and beyond. It will enhance the specialist scanning, tracking, analysis and virtual/augmented reality infrastructure already on offer at UCA Canterbury, consolidating a growing research specialism, supporting the work of staff researchers and providing space and facilities as the focal point for a research community of staff and PGR students. The investment will also have immediate external benefits in the East Kent creative network, supporting the UK's creative economy and proving the value of arts and humanities practice-led research with an initiatives that is open and visible to surrounding business and communities, providing a portal for collaboration.