3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.
Today, basically, you can print anything you like. It can be a working gun, an acoustic guitar or even a handmade camera lens… The sky’s the limit!
Well, Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger, took it a little bit further with Digital Grotesque project. The two swiss architects designed and created a 3D room, in artificial sandstone containing 260 million surfaces, printed at a resolution of a tenth of a millimeter. The 170 square foot, 11 ton room was created using a Voxeljet 3D printer (size of a large room), taking a month to print but only a day to bring together. Combining the natural with the ornamental, Digital Grotesque has walls that are elaborate constructions of geometric patterns with multiple surfaces, folds, openings and views.
The variety was created through a bond of computational design and digital fabrication. An algorithm, which endlessly divided a cube, replaced the draftsman. A simple cubic division creates four surfaces through four folds of a typical cube.
However, Hansmeyer created multiple divisions of each fold to create multiple surfaces. The algorithm successively iterated these folds to produce everything from the superstructure to micro-structures and the texture of its components.
As an imagined space, Digital Grotesque is less worried about functionality than with the “expressive formal potentials of digital technologies”.
Lavish, opulent, full of details at the verge of perception, this 3D printed room is waiting to be discovered awakening one’s imagination of what is yet to be created, in the world of architecture, architecture designs and interior decorating.
Wishing you a great day!
