The facilities and technical equipment on offer at the College are amongst the best of their kind in the world. They support students in their explorations of the creative possibilities of the new and the traditional, and the interplay between them.

RapidformRCA provides on-site access to sophisticated rapid prototyping, CNC milling, laser-scanning, vacuum-casting and computer-controlled knitting equipment. At the same time, traditional workshop facilities are maintained in all areas of the College. Glass is worked, as it has been for centuries, in the furnaces of Ceramics & Glass, while in Visual Communication, metal typesetting vies for student attention with Adobe InDesign™. Printmakers work with a 1 ton etching press, originally exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition, alongside the most sophisticated digital imaging technologies.

If it is not possible to meet a student’s needs within the College itself, we are able to draw on the College’s extensive range of links with business and industry and other academic institutions for help. Our relationship with Imperial College London, just across the road, is particularly valuable for access to both expertise and equipment in science, engineering and medicine.