Creative & Advanced Technologies Lab  ·  University of Westminster

A third kind of space.

The University of Westminster's campus-wide home for creative and advanced technology. The tools reserved for specialists, open to everyone.

63Spaces
111Technologies
1,130Materials in the library
Scroll to explore the Lab ↓
What is CAT LAB

The model, in
plain language

Mission

We democratise creative and advanced technology: the powerful tools usually reserved for specialists, made accessible to everyone.

Model

Academic-led: run by academics and technologists as one team, with learning built into the fabric of the Lab. User-centred, community-focused.

Territory

The frontier for emerging technology, immersion, spatial computing, simulation, visualisation, alongside the full spectrum of creative and fabrication technologies, all under one roof and one model.

Not a makerspace, not a production studio. A third kind of space, where everyone on campus can learn to put advanced technology to work.

Why it works

Evidence, not
adjectives

1,130materials, open to all
User-centred

A materials library anyone on campus can touch, test, and learn from. We democratise the powerful tools usually reserved for specialists, and make them accessible to everyone.

2013since, over a decade
Academic-led

Run by academics and technologists working as one team, with learning built into the fabric of the Lab. The role that makes the model work was developed here.

63spaces across campus
Community-focused

Spaces reaching across the Marylebone campus and, on the Lab's own terms, into the wider University. See what people put them to work on in the work.

The flagship

The Immersive
Experience Lab

Our flagship: the £2.9m Immersive Experience Lab, a world-class immersive space on the Marylebone Road, designed, built, and run by the Lab's own team. The first place to start exploring what our technology ecosystem can do.

Step inside the IEL →

The evidence

Over a decade of
student work

The Lab's record, in miniature. A small selection of the projects, exhibitions, and festivals run with students and colleagues across the Marylebone campus.

Making Leaders

Leadership, designed in space

FAB FEST

The Lab’s festival of fabrication

Finance Expo

Market data, made spatial

Micro Sustainable Architecture

Small footprint, large ideas

See the work →

The software layer

Experience

Experience is one platform with many media. It lets anyone create and present immersive content in the IEL, with no specialist knowledge needed. It's in your hands.

Meet Experience →

Recognition

Credibility,
compact

Funding and status

Backed by the Office for Students. The IEL is recognised by RIBA as a world-class space, and the Lab has won many Quintin Hogg Trust grants over the years.

Networks

A member of the SHED Network, convened at MIT, placing the Lab among an international group of pioneering university spaces.

Partners

Built with industry: L-Acoustics, AVStumpfl, and Daikin among the key technology partners behind the Lab and the IEL.

The people

Academics and technologists,
one team

The Lab is run by academics and technologists working as one team, many of them homegrown from Westminster's own graduates. The role that makes the model work was developed here.

Meet the team →

The welcome

Get involved

The Lab is open to students and colleagues across the Marylebone campus, and reaches into the wider University on the Lab's own terms. Whether you want to book a space, bring a module into the IEL, or simply come and see what is possible, you are welcome.

Join the Lab →