Smart Construction Lab
A shared environment for
experimentation and innovation
The Smart Construction Lab in Falls Church, Virginia, convenes researchers, students, and partners under one roof to drive the industry forward with cutting-edge collaboration — essentially where the Coalition’s ideas move from discussion to implementation.
Designed as both a proving ground and showcase space for construction innovation, the Lab will support applied research and scalable deployment across technical domains such as additive construction, robotics, mass timber, digital fabrication, autonomous systems, materials characterization, and more. Coalition members will have opportunities to prototype new ideas, evaluate technologies, validate performance, and explore scalable solutions through the lab’s immersive environments.
The 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility — located on the ground floor of HITT Contracting’s new Falls Church headquarters — is anticipated to open in the spring of 2027.
EQUIPPED WITH TECHNOLOGIES TO ELEVATE THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
- Advanced manufacturing
- Materials lab for composites, cementitious, and polymers, among others
- Wood fabrication for prototyping, jig building, and general support
- Metal fabrication for prototyping and general support
- Robotics
- Additive construction and hybrid maker and field lab with CNC routers, laser cutters, 3D printers (large and small scale)
- Applied and immersive digital construction with sensors, LIDAR, “construction site sandbox,” and full-scale mockups
- Digital visualization and simulation with VR headsets, AR motion tracking, and BIM / digital twin integration
- Drone flying zone
our full-spectrum
platform for innovation
Partnering with the Coalition facilitates access to the entire Virginia Tech Innovation Network, which targets complex challenges by linking researchers, partners, and thought leaders across the commonwealth and beyond. The Smart Construction Lab’s high-impact work will seamlessly integrate with tech-talent acceleration at Academic Building One in Alexandria, high-performance connectivity at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington, and foundational expertise across our Blacksburg campus.