OFFICE

BACKGROUND
Radlab was a 10 year project focused on developing experimental work made possible by the use of computational algorithms and computer numerically controlled machines. As part of a pivotal global movement in the commercial deployment of digital manufacturing and custom fabrication, Radlab served as a platform for bringing together a range of interests, skills, and disciplines, including architects, industrial designers, graphic designers, mechanical and electrical engineers, artists, craftspeople, coders, tinkerers, and dreamers. With a framework of design research that served to guide each project, Radlab prioritized exploring cross-disciplinary solutions as a way of embedding collaborative thinking in its process.

During its ten year life Radlab occupied four distinct offices, each marrying design and fabrication in progressively more succinct, productive, safe, and interconnected ways. It began in a 400sf, windowless, 2nd floor room above a mechanic shop near Inman Square in Somerville, MA. This small, singular design space was organized and retrofitted to accommodate 3d printing and laser cutting. Thanks to the Great Recession, at the close of 2008 Radlab was able to move into an industrial loft in the Seaport District. This second location, priced very similarly to the first, came with panoramic views of Boston Harbor, dedicated rooms for specific kinds of machining, and a generous, open design studio. This was where Radlab first began to explore robotic arm fabrication, and hosted courses for the Boston Architectural College and Wentworth Institute of Technology. When the building’s management was taken over by Millennium Partners, Radlab’s rent more than doubled, and the firm was forced to move. The third location was much like the second. It was in the same building, just closer to the ground floor, and without sweeping views of the ocean. However, the space was larger, at around 2,500sf, and offered easier access to move materials and work in and out of the building. It was at this time that Radlab began to take on relatively large commissions, and a wider range of product to building scale projects. Radlab continued to grow, and within a couple of years began looking for a new home once again. In 2012 Radlab made its final move into Charlestown, north of the Charles River. It was a grand space of about 3,000sf, a factory once owned by Priscilla of Boston, an upscale wing of David’s Bridal. As part of a small collection of industrial buildings on Spice Street, it was affectionately referred to by its address, Two Spice.

Radlab remained a small, privately owned design firm for the duration of its existence. It subscribed to the notion that it’s largely the care, pleasure, integrity, and camaraderie embedded in the making of the work that propels designers closer to compelling, built solutions. The work Radlab produced was ultimately intended to be experienced and enjoyed by people across a wide spectrum of cultures, languages, and traditions. Through its work the team at Radlab sought to embrace, discover, and elucidate a small part of the spectacular wonder of humanity. More than anything, what made Radlab possible was the incredible people that participated in its inception, growth and development.

LEADERSHIP

MATTHEW A. TRIMBLE
Matthew A. Trimble founded Radlab in 2008.  He has a diverse range of experience working and consulting in the field of architecture for firms that include Neil M. Denari Architects, Behnisch and Partner, Preston Scott Cohen, Inc, and dECOi Architects.  Trimble has previously taught seminars, workshops, and studios for both graduate and undergraduate students at the Boston Architectural College, the Wentworth Institute of Technology, the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the American University of Sharjah.  He has also taught professional workshops in computational design and digital fabrication for organizations that include: Saucony, New Balance, Timberline, Schneider Electric, and IDEO, and has received numerous grants and awards for design research in architecture, robotics, computational design, and experimental fabrication. Trimble’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City, the Octagon Museum in Washington, D.C., the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the Hong Kong-ShenZhen Biennale Architecture Exposition in Hong Kong. His design work has also been published widely, including in Architectural Record, Architect Magazine, Perspecta, Metropolis, and “The Designer’s Field Guide to Collaboration”. Radlab has been named as one of BostInno’s “50 on Fire”, was part of the One Main design team which won an Architizer A+ Award, and was a member of the John W. Olver Design Building team which won the Jury’s Choice for Wood Innovation in the WoodWorks 2018 Wood Design Awards. Trimble holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture degree from The University of Memphis, where he received the Frances F. Austin Scholarship, and a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Avalon Travel Fellowship. He is currently a member of Branch Technology, a Chattanooga-based organization aiming to revolutionize the built environment.

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