Campus.Workshops

Basel Academy of Art and Design

The Basel Academy of Art and Design (HGK Basel) offers its students, teachers, and staff members excellently equipped workshops for working metal, wood, plastics, and ceramics. In addition, we have the appropriate facilities for rapid prototyping, book binding, screen printing as well as a paint shop and a sculptor’s studio along with a sewing studio.

Whether they’re working with wood, metal or plastic, or doing rapid prototyping, painting, sewing or digital fabrication in the BauRaum.Workshops; or sculpting, screen printing or bookbinding in the Pavillon.Workshops; working in the photo, video and audio labs, multimedia workstations, darkrooms and Media lending system in the Media.Workshop: the university’s on-campus workshops provide students with opportunities to learn a variety of analogue techniques and acquire digital know-how. The workshops are open to students, lecturers and staff, and accessible nearly all year round. They can be used for project work in teaching and research.

Introductory courses teach users the basics to ensure they can work safely and independently in the Campus.Workshops. Depending on the study programme and curriculum, different combinations of workshop courses are mandatory. For interested students, additional courses tailored to a specific academic focus are offered by the faculty wherever possible. Workshop heads provide support with their comprehensive professional knowledge and information on specific technologies, tools and processes.

The work performed by all users in the Campus.Workshops is based on individual responsibility with regard to safety and health protection as well as solidarity towards other users. The workshops place an emphasis on sustainability, i.e. the responsible use of materials, devices and machines.

A team of tutors who all have a background in the particular trade supervise the students during open workshop hours. Once they have successfully passed the introductory course for a workshop, students can independently carry out academic projects in that workshop or with help from the workshop heads.

Students can rent audio, video, photography, lighting and presentation equipment at the Media lending system of the Media.Workshop.

Our workshops

Bookbinding

In our bindery, students are introduced to various bookbinding methods. This allows them to plan and implement their projects independently. They learn how to cut paper and cardboard with a cutting machine or cardboard scissors, how to produce a perfect-bound, softcover brochure, or how to print covers by means of foil or blind stamping.

Digital Fabrication Lab

The Digital Fabrication Lab offers a wide range of digital manufacturing options: from 3D scans to 3D VR modelling, 3D printing, laser cutting, to CNC processing. For data creation, the Digital Fabrication Lab relies primarily on the programme Rhinoceros which is provided and supported.

Media.Workshop

With the photo and video labs, the multimedia studios, the media seminar room and the associated media workstations, the media lending service, students, teachers and researchers have access to a wide range of options to work in the areas of photography, film, broadcasting, performance, dance, moving image and sound.

Metalworking

In our metal workshop, students produce all kinds of locksmithing and metal works. From large frame constructions for installations, to mechanical components and fashion accessories, to sophisticated cast metal objects.

Paint shop

In our paint shop, students can colour their design or art objects.

Plastics

In our plastics workshop we produce display models and prototypes. Preliminary models are often made of polystyrene, final models usually of polyurethane foam.

Screen printing

After completing the introductory course, students should be familiar with the basics of screen printing, allowing them to plan and realize their own small projects. This includes preparing the exposure templates and transferring them to the screen correctly.

Sculptor’s studio

The scuptor's studio allows working with various, above all, plastic materials such as clay, plaster, concrete, wax, latex, silicone, and polymer resin, as well as ceramic substances.

Sewing.Island

The “Sewing.Island” is equipped with industrial sewing machines and a space for cutting, and offers professional support for students working on their own textile and other sewing projects.

Woodworking

In our wood workshop solid woods as well as various panel materials can be processed. Diligent modelling and working with a lathe is just as possible as rough carpentry work. For this we rely on highly professional machinery and the sound advice of our woodworking team.

Campus workshops. That sounds like a lot of work but, actually, it means much more: inspiration, knowledge, exchange, and a good place to meet friends!

Norman Ries and Helge Brackmann, Masterstudio, July 2019

The Academy's infrastructure is state-of-the-art, and the workshops offer a wide selection of appropriate machines, including competent guidance and support – a place that sparks curiosity and inspires interdisciplinary work. Thanks to the students’ initiative, the openness of the heads of the various institutes, and the commitment of the workshop staff, this is the place for a constructive dialogue. Studying means searching for new answers all the time. During work on my degree project, I got the chance to think outside the box thanks to the support of the workshop staff; this encouraged me to venture into media and methods of implementation that I was completely unaware of at the time.

Pauline Lutz, Fashion Design, August 2019