Areas of Expertise

Design and Fabrication

Production Design

Exhibit Design

Construction

Construction Management

BOXLAB officially began in 1999 as an industrial design studio and shop, mainly fabricating props, prototypes and camera related constructs for film and television. BOXLAB founder, Chad Loucks began running the Model Shop at Rice University’s School of Architecture (RSA) in the fall of 2000. Loucks served as RSA’s shop manager from 2000-2010, managing all aspects of the Model Shop. At RSA, he was given the amazing opportunity to explore new technologies for design and fabrication, including laser cutting, 3D printing, and computer numerically controlled (CNC) routing. Having run analog tools most of his life, he was quick to adopt the use of the new CNC tools for problem solving in the built world. He created manuals for laser cutter, 3D printer and CNC router. He wrote curriculum and taught Introduction to Digital Fabrication as well as Independent Studies utilizing the new digital tools.

In the summer of 2010, Loucks resigned from Rice’s School of Architecture and relocated to Austin, TX to work with long-time collaborators Paul Bernhard, Jeff Poss and Troy Engel with their start-up, Paul Bernhard Exhibit Design and Consulting (PBE). Loucks wore many hats on many projects over the next six years contracting with PBE. He worked as Exhibit Designer/Drafter and Fabricator, Project Manager and Install Supervisor, CNC programmer and Archival Photographer/Videographer.