Workshop vendor

Select what you need, press the number, slot in the amount due, and happily continue tinkering: an on-campus workshop vendor. Photograph: Regula Bearth © ZHdK

My favourite piece

BY VALÉRIE HUG
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No scissors within reach or have you misplaced the measuring tape? Don’t fret: thank goodness for the Shop ITZ; it offers a fitting solution for almost every problem with its amazing range of supplies and equipment. There’s a small glitch, though: the opening times.

But we urgently need another roll of adhesive tape or a bit more laser credit, in order to finish our project late at night or in the early hours. It’s a familiar situation, and the solution is obvious: if only there were a “Selecta”-type vendor that would spit out supplies instead of hot and cold beverages!

Hold on! Of course campus has vendors — no less than four to be precise. And depending on their location, they offer a carefully selected, well-customised product range. One for screen printing, paper supplies and textiles, another for the wood workshop. Yet another offers stage designers 24/7 assistance with its excellent stock of paper- or crocodile clips, sponges, etc. In short: the workshop vendors are a highly reliable campus asset. A favourite piece whose value only dawns on one in a tight spot. Adrian Brazerol, head of the teaching workshops and initiator of the automatic vendors, knows this as well: “They contain things often forgotten at home, but without which progressing a project would be hampered or even impossible.” The weekly checks of the fill levels confirm this. Not only that! The machines are also being used more and more frequently. “Especially the laser credit is a real hit,” says Brazerol.