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SummerFAB 2023

APPLICATION AVAILABLE STARTING APRIL 1, 2023! Come back later this spring for more information.

Interested in learning about Architecture, Construction, Engineering, and Fabrication and applying your newfound skills to build something for your community? Join the SummerFAB Design Corps!

Design. Fabricate. Construct. Network.

SummerFAB, a six-week, nonresidential summer program, in its sixth year, exposes high school youth to the built environment through interdisciplinary, project-based learning practices, a cornerstone to a Wentworth education. Participants collaborate with Wentworth faculty and current architecture students to research, design, fabricate, and construct a full-scale, community-driven solution to local neighborhood challenges. Additionally, participants are provided the opportunity to develop a holistic network of youth interested in design, faculty who teach design, academic and social emotional support staff, and architects, contractors, engineers, and developers across the Boston area. Learn more about the six (6) week program below!

Students will design and build a project in collaboration with local community organizations or community task forces. The program aims to install the project on-site by the end of the program.

Our 2023 Summer Program is for Boston residents or attendees of Boston Public Schools only. 

LEARN

Phase One: LEARN. These modules will allow participants to learn skills that will prepare them for success throughout the six weeks. From exploration through drawing, construction safety, financial literacy, and many more, participants will explore and build foundational skills in design, construction, and life.

Students learning about fabrication in SummerFab.

OBSERVE

Phase Two: OBSERVE. These modules will initiate an investigation of site and public space. Together we will explore and observe communal and publicly activated spaces around Boston and around Wentworth’s campus. Throughout the first week, we will discuss the connections between thinking and making and learn basic and essential visualization and representation skills to communicate our ideas and observations. 

Students posing after completing SummerFAB 2017's pavilion.

ANALYZE

Phase Three: ANALYZE. These modules will introduce methods of design inquiry and visual expression. Having examined our urban setting in Boston, we will learn how to analyze the built environment through quantitative and qualitative terms. Participants will become acquainted with scale and proportion through drawing and model making, all the while learning valuable representation skills to express design inquiries throughout phase exercises. This phase will end with the selection of three-dimensional architectural prototypes that will serve as the base design for the full-scale build project. 

SummerFAB 2019 finished pavilion on Wentworth's campus.

BUILD

Phase Four: BUILD. This phase culminates in translating design thinking into built form, resulting in a full-scale temporary site-specific construction. Working together with the fabrication coordinator, participants learn the skills involved with the production and realization of a design idea into built form. This phase concludes with final installation of the built work on site, either temporary or permanent, and a celebration with faculty, friends, and community partners. 

Students high-five while building pavilion.

Program Fee

There is no fee for youth (14-18 years old) accepted into the program. Must be a resident of the City of Boston.

Interested in SummerFAB?

Interested in Architecture, Construction, Engineering, Fabrication? Participate in SummerFAB this summer! The application opens on April 1, 2023 and closes on June 6, 2023.

Pieces stacked in a fabrication lab for annual pavilion.