About

The Institute of Making is a multidisciplinary 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. Membership of and day-to-day access to the Institute is available to all UCL staff and students.

Our public programme of symposia, masterclasses, and open days explores the links between academic research and hands-on experience, and celebrates the sheer joy of stuff.

Its mission is to provide all makers with a creative home in which to innovate, contemplate and understand all aspects of materials and an inspiring place to explore their relationship to making.

At the heart of the Institute of Making is the Materials Library – a growing repository of some of the most extraordinary materials on earth, gathered together for their ability to fire the imagination and advance conceptualisation. A place in which makers from all disciplines at UCL can see, touch, research and discuss, so that they can apply this knowledge and experience to their own practice.

Alongside the collection is the Makespace – a workshop where members and guests can make, break, design and combine both advanced and traditional tools, techniques and materials. The facility brings together equipment, expertise and perspectives of making from a wide range of disciplines, encouraging users to engage in the craft, design, technology, history, philosophy, art and engineering of making.

For more information about what we do, please see our annual reports:

First year report
Second year report
Third year report
Fourth year report
Fifth year report
Sixth year report
Seventh year report
Eighth year report