what we do · 04 lab

lab.

The digital tools we build to do the work — for schools and joinery, colour and pattern, and the island we work on. Every one started inside a project. Some are free for anyone; some only run inside the studio.

9 tools

what we build to do the work.

Some are free for anyone to use. Some only run inside the studio. Every one started as a question inside a project — open one to see how it works.

01schoolstudio tool
made to grow.Lay out a Made to Grow timber school on a hexagonal grid, read eleven live studies, and get the bill of modules that builds it.open the page →
02joinerystudio tool
quick quote.Our in-house quoting app. Enter a kitchen or a wardrobe column by column; JIMM builds every part, nests the sheets and prices the job.open the page →
03softwarestudio tool
bluehopper.We draw our software on a blueprint sheet and wire it up. The drawing becomes a model we can question: what runs where, and what breaks.open the page →
04furniturefree to use
rejig.Lay out a slotted plywood wall in your browser — boxes, shelves, desks and hooks — and get the list of parts. Then we price it and cut it.open the page →
05patternfree to use
d’arcy.A library of 106 live models of how patterns form — shells, cracks, foam, branching. Move the dials and watch the drawing follow.open the page →
06presentationsstudio tool
storyboard.Planning a talk before anyone designs a slide: the order, the argument, the timing, and the jury’s criteria linked to the slides that answer them.open the page →
07platformin development
studio dashboard.One home for the studio’s tools. Sign-in, projects, quotes, money and mail join up on one page, built role by role.open the page →
08colourfree to use
gamut.Load a photo and Gamut reads its colours, on your device: the palette, warm against cool, the light and dark masses, and the nearest paint.open the page →
09islandfree to use
malta metabolism.What flows into Malta, through it and out again — energy, water, food, materials, waste, traffic and people. Published data, sourced, every model marked.open the page →
keep it handy

save it to your home screen.

Every lab tool runs in the browser — nothing to download. Add one to your home screen and it opens like an app: full screen, its own icon, no browser bar.

Where a tool asks you to sign up, it’s still free — an email address, no password, a one-time link.

iPhone · iPad
01Open the tool in Safari.
02Tap the Share button.
03Choose “Add to Home Screen”.
Android
01Open the tool in Chrome.
02Tap the ⋮ menu.
03Choose “Add to Home screen” or “Install app”.
diffusion of knowledge

what we learn, we give away.

Knowledge that stays in the studio is wasted. So the tools are free, the methods are taught, and the failures get written down — so the next project, ours or anyone’s, starts further on.

featured initiative · non-profit

made to make.

How Malta builds tomorrow depends on how we teach the people who will build it. So we start with children, and with making.

Made to Make is our non-profit for kids and adolescents. It gives them real, hands-on time with interiors, architecture, product design and anything else you can make with your hands. It runs on design thinking, on materials, and on finding out what a material knows by making something with it.

kids & adolescentsdesign thinkinglearning through making
a child assembling a slotted cardboard structure, made to makemade to make · slot-together structures