Our Facilities

Learn Through Making

Bring Your Vision to Life

At ID, you learn by doing. Our studio focus is a continuation of our Bauhaus legacy of experimentation, integrating disciplines, and using technology to improve lives.

This foundation of experimentation and practical skill-building prepares you for today’s innovation-driven industries, where the ability to iterate, collaborate, and adapt is essential.

Our Building

Our 72,000-square-foot home embodies the spirit of experimentation and collaboration that define ID. Set within Illinois Tech’s historic campus—home to the largest collection of Mies van der Rohe buildings in the world—our contemporary structure honors our Bauhaus legacy while pushing ever forward.

Institute of Design at Illinois Tech breathtaking campus rendering.

Kaplan Building at Institute of Design in Chicago.

Designed for Sustainability

LEED Silver certification reflects our commitment to sustainable design. The second floor features Chicago’s first dynamic ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) façade system, which uses pneumatics to control solar energy while weighing 99 percent less than glass. This, combined with a naturally shading cantilever design, creates both a striking appearance as well as environmental benefits. Our space continues to evolve sustainably with ongoing energy efficiency upgrades.

Spaces for Connection

Two open-air courtyards anchor our building, creating natural gathering points for chance encounters and collaboration. Our community kitchen—the school’s social hub—creates an environment for organic connection and community along with flexible classrooms, meeting areas, and an on-site café serving Chicago-roasted coffee.

“

It's an idea factory–a place of creative collision between students and faculty across disciplines, where new ideas are explored and tested on their way to becoming meaningful innovations.

—John Ronan, Architect, John & Jeanne Rowe Endowed Professor in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Founding Principal of John Ronan Architects

People sitting in the Morgenstern Pitch, a stairlike space for presentations at the Kaplan Institute

Studio Space

Every MDes and PhD student gets a dedicated workspace within our studio space. The studio connects learning, making, and collaboration in one place.

Flexible rooms and community areas support everything from focused individual work to dynamic group critique sessions.

Institute of Design at Illinois Tech collaborative classrooms and makerspaces.

The modern and light-filled interior of the Kaplan Building at the Institute of Design in Chicago.

Digital Studio

Bring virtual worlds to life with cutting-edge hardware and software for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality platforms.

Windows workstations with ultra-wide monitors can handle complex Unity and Godot development, while Meta Quest headsets let you immediately test your VR prototypes. Apple Vision Pro allows for spatial computing and mixed reality work, and Mac Studios power demanding projects, from 3D modeling to AI-integrated applications.

Institute of Design graduate student using prototyping tools in makerspace.

Institute of Design electronics prototyping tools in Chicago makerspace at Illinois Tech.

Institute of Design state-of-the-art classrooms at Illinois Tech in Chicago.

Idea Shop

Validate design concepts, refine solutions, and develop skills essential for success in innovation-driven fields with specialized fabrication tools.

Multiple 3D printers support rapid development, from quick iterations to complex multi-material prototypes, including our Stratasys J55 Prime for accurate color reproduction. The professional CNC machine manages large-scale projects, and laser cutting enables precision work on smaller components across a range of materials. Body sensing, biometric, and environmental monitoring devices create responsive prototypes that advance concepts.