makelab expands footprint at MADE: bush terminal to unlock tier-one 3D printing
expanding its footprint to brooklyn's made: bush terminal, makelab unlocks the logistics, physical infrastructure, and production capacity needed to serve major tier-one clients.
MAKELAB SCALES INDUSTRIAL FACILITY AT MADE: BUSH TERMINAL
At MADE: Bush Terminal, a reimagined 140,000-square-foot industrial campus on Brooklyn‘s waterfront, on-demand 3D printing studio Makelab has secured a new 3,840-square-foot facility to scale its production capabilities. Key tenants like Makelab are bolstering Sunset Park’s working waterfront as the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) continues to transform the district into a thriving epicenter for industrial design and urban manufacturing. In an exclusive interview with designboom, the Makelab team shares how the new location has transformed their capacity to take on major tier-one clients.
‘Every time you hit a new milestone or a new stage on the growth trajectory, there’s more to figure out. That’s just the nature of manufacturing,’ starts Makelab Co-Founder & CEO Christina Perla. ‘The other day a 53-foot truck came to pick up an order — that could never have happened at our previous location. Limited access restricts the types of companies you can work with, but that truck was sent by our client, a tier-one auto supplier, and it was their only transport option.’
COMBINING INDUSTRIAL DESIGN EXPERTISE WITH 3d printing
When Makelab launched a decade ago, the mainstream design industry treated 3D printing as an effortless alternative to traditional production, a misconception that often led to unprintable screen models and structural failures. As industrial designers, founders Christina Perla and Manny Mota positioned the company not as a push-button vendor, but as an expert partner that grounds ambitious CAD concepts in real-world physics, material properties, and physical usability.
‘Manny and I are industrial designers by trade, so we’re programmed to think about the next step of a part’s lifecycle. When we started almost 10 years ago, 3D printing was painted as this magical thing where if you didn’t know how to make something before, 3D printing could just do it — we were explaining gravity! Walking back from that narrative was a lot of work,’ recalls Perla.
MAKELAB BRINGS TANGIBILITY TO DIGITAL DESIGN PROCESSES
Beside providing the physical infrastructure required to handle complex, high-volume production schedules, the studio’s move to MADE: Bush Terminal reinforces a broader mission: bridging digital workflows with physical manufacturing literacy. Operating within a collaborative waterfront ecosystem, Makelab aims to influence how modern product designers approach fabrication from the very beginning of the creative process.
‘I’ve noticed a shift toward people thinking more about the manufacturing side of product design, which is very smart and much needed. I hope that with the availability of all these tools, designers can better visualize how things actually get made and bring more tangibility to the design process,’ notes Perla.
project info:
company: makelab | @makelab3d
site: MADE: Bush Terminal | @madebushterminal
location: Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York
