Makelab Expands Production Footprint at MADE Bush Terminal

Makelab, an on-demand 3D printing studio, has secured a 357-square-meter facility at MADE: Bush Terminal, a roughly 13,000-square-meter industrial campus on Brooklyn's waterfront, to scale production for tier-one clients.

The campus sits in Sunset Park, where the New York City Economic Development Corporation has been developing a district for industrial design and urban manufacturing.

Christina Perla, Co-Founder and CEO at Makelab, said: "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."

She continued: "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."

Perla and co-founder Manny Mota, both industrial designers, positioned Makelab about a decade ago as a partner, not a vendor. "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," Perla said.

The move reinforces the studio's aim of bridging digital workflows with physical manufacturing literacy. Perla noted a shift toward people thinking more about the manufacturing side of product design, which is exactly what Makelab's expanded facility is built to support.