Hasta La Ideas

It is, in fact, possible to download a car. Sterling Backus, enthusiastic father and physicist, literally downloaded and 3D printed an entire Lamborghini Aventador. Sterling started by first downloading a 1:10 scale model of the Aventador, scaling it up, separating the parts, and even adding a few signature modifications of his own, like making the car’s body wider. The process did take 5 whole years, but the results are so remarkable that even Lamborghini reached out to help in any ways that they could by donating parts like the Aventador’s headlights, which cost a whopping $5,000 a piece, and an original Lamborghini steering wheel, to replace the Audi steering wheel that Sterling had installed previously.

This video comes courtesy 3D Printing Nerd, a YouTuber who interviewed Sterling this month to track his 5-year journey. Sterling hopes to have the Aventador absolutely ready by August, where it’ll be on display at an auto-show.

Designer: Sterling Backus

3D printing an entire car sounds somewhat plausible when you’ve got industrial-grade equipment at hand. Sterling had just a Creality Cr 10S, an incredibly bare-basic $350 printer used for hobby projects. To print the car, Sterling split up all the surfaces into small 1 square-foot parts that he printed and glued together using epoxy. Imagine building a car using jigsaw puzzle pieces – that’s pretty much what Sterling did. He pushed the printer to its absolute limit, running it continuously for 15 full months before the printer died on him. Luckily, he managed to print the entire outer body by then. However, there was a small problem…

You see, the Cr 10S doesn’t print metal or carbon fiber. It prints with standard PLA filament, which is great for tiny toys… but not so much for large supercars. PLA has a glass transition temperature of 50-60°C (131-140°F), which means at those temperatures, it begins to go soft and start warping. That’s a problem when you’ve got outdoor temperatures that can sometimes touch 50°C and a V12 engine under the hood that definitely crosses those temperatures. To overcome this, Sterling coated each and every surface with 6 layers of carbon fiber sheet (3 on top, and 3 on the bottom), vacuum sealing the carbon fiber onto the panels to ensure there were no warps or bubbles. Once each panel was sandwiched with the carbon fiber, Sterling coated them with automotive primer and got to work sanding each piece to perfection with his son.

The highlight of the Aventador are those headlights, which apparently cost 5 grand apiece. However, when Sterling began his project, word got to the Lamborghini executives, who decided to give him two original Aventador headlights, sparing in $10K in expenses. The windshield on the original Aventador costs another $4,000, but Sterling made do with a windshield from a Pacifica minivan, which he had trimmed to size. The taillights, however, Sterling printed on his own, given that the wide-body build he was going for would not fit Lamborghini’s stock taillights.

Perhaps the most challenging part of the build was to get the Aventador’s signature scissor doors right. Even as a physicist, it’s something Sterling just couldn’t seem to nail… and Lamborghini’s door hinges cost a thousand dollars apiece. Luckily, Sterling wasn’t the only one 3D printing an Aventador at the same time. Another hobbyist who was building an Aventador of his own had some hinges to spare, which he gave to Sterling.

What’s the most impressive fact is that this entire car is built from scratch. Rather than stripping a junk car of its outer fairing and layering an Aventador’s pieces onto it, Sterling built his chassis manually, welding pieces of metal together to bring his car to life. The metal chassis would then hold each individual PLA and carbon fiber piece, creating the car’s aesthetic.

You’re probably wondering what Sterling did for the engine (it isn’t possible to 3D print those yet). Under the Aventador’s (rear) hood isn’t Lamborghini’s signature V12, but instead is an LS1, a V8 manufactured by GM and used in the Corvette. The transmission on the Aventador, funnily enough, isn’t a Lamborghini stock too but rather is taken from a Porsche 911.

Once Sterling finished finalizing his build (and even making the interiors), Lamborghini’s director of marketing took a look at his progress, only to pop his head in and see an Audi steering wheel fitted into the car’s dash. A lot of Lamborghinis use Audi parts, Sterling mentioned, highlighting that Audi and Lamborghini are owned by the same company, VW. The steering column on the Aventador, for example, is the same one found in Audi cars, so it seemed like a natural pick for Sterling. He didn’t have an Aventador steering wheel, so he decided to stick with the Audi one that fit perfectly into the column – something Lamborghini’s director of marketing didn’t quite approve of.  Two weeks later, Sterling found a Lamborghini steering wheel in the mail straight from Italy. The Italians don’t like it when you mess with tradition, whether it’s putting ketchup in your pasta or an Audi steering wheel in your Aventador!

The overall build still needs some work, and Sterling is hoping to give the car a Red, White, and Black paint job once everything’s ready. The 3D-printed Aventador weighs just around 2700 lbs, making it significantly lighter than the original which clocks in at 4000 lbs. For now, Sterling is still working on finishing the car’s exteriors as well as fine-tuning some of the electrical parts of the car as well as the interior – something he hopes to get done before August. The 3D-printed Aventador is slated to make its first proper appearance at the Bandimere Speedway near Detroit on August 13th.

The post A Father-son duo 3D Printed an Entire Lamborghini Aventador and it looks Stunningly Real first appeared on Yanko Design.

Baz Luhrmann and the Ai-Da robot collaborate on bringing public photography submissions to life

Bombay Sapphire developed the “Saw This, Made This” campaign with Baz Luhrmann, requesting people to flex their creative inspirations by contributing inspiring images and tagging them in social media. Luhrmann selects those he finds most compelling, and those images are then featured at, and reimagined in, a series of events featuring Ai-Da, a  humanoid robot that creates art by drawing and painting using her robotic arm and her AI programming.

The first installation of “Saw This, Made This” took place at London’s the Design Museum last month, and is currently on view in New York’s Chelsea Factory art space through Friday 12 May, where Ai-Da will be creating live AI artworks.

The campaign aims to celebrate the limitless beauty and diversity of human creativity and its intersection with robotics and artificial intelligence.

Photos courtesy of Yuxi Liu for Bombay Sapphire and Sansho Scott for BFA 

HW Studio Arquitectos has completed a cruciform house with open-air corridors and courtyards tucked between locally quarried stone walls in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Based nearby in Morelia, HW Studio Arquitectos finished the 250-square metre (2,690-square foot) house, named Casa Enso II, in 2022, drawing on vernacular designs, cultural expression and local history of the Guanajuato region.

Fifty-centimeter-thick sand-coloured stone walls serve as both the defining feature and the organizational strategy.

Arranged in a cross, the walls form four quadrants, framing the spaces and shield stone alleys for circulation.

“The dispersion of these spaces forces a permanent pilgrimage between spaces,” said lead architect Rogelio Vallejo Bores.

“It makes you come into contact with the earth, the air, and the mountain as if it were an ancient monastery, framing the landscape but at the same time forming a natural part of it.”

The southwest quadrant serves as the entry with a welcoming endemic garden, while the northwest quadrant is reserved for parking, using the existing trees to shade cars from the sun.

The centre of the plan is slightly sunken into the earth, and the alleys and the surrounding land ramps can be accessed via stone stairways.

The northeast quadrant holds the one-bedroom home. Organized in a bar plan, the rectangular volume separates public spaces from private ones with an inset volume containing a bathroom, dressing room, and service space.

The stone walls are broken by nearly invisible floor-to-ceiling glass that allows the heavy, single-plate roof and polished floors to continue outside the envelope of the house and orient the rooms to the arid exterior landscape.

The final quadrant holds a separate two-storey office space. The square form is the only vertical element on the site and references the Santa Brígida mine in Mineral de Pozos. The block is punctured by an open-air linear window.

“We fancied the idea of seeing silhouettes from the outside as if performing in a play,” Bores said. The most prominent window faces south and frames a view of the long mountain of Santa Maria, an essential focal point in the city.

Particular attention was paid to the allocation and installation of the stone, which was extracted only 20 minutes from the rural site, Bores explained.

The limited resource required the team to be precise, orderly and efficient to meet the financial and architectural expectations, as well as generate a circular economy for the area.

In addition to the thermal mass of the stone walls, photovoltaic panels reduce the home’s energy consumption.

“Everything has a reference to the past,” Bores said. “This house is based on decisions that have to do with classic modern architecture mixed with Mexican vernacular tradition, automatically linking us to Luis Barragan in that sense.”

Comparatively, HW Studio also completed an angled house in Morelia that steps down a slope and defines spaces with both light and dark walls.

The photography is by César Béjar.

Project credits:

Lead architect: Rogelio Vallejo Bores
Architects: Oscar Didier Ascencio Castro, Nik Zaret Cervantes Ordaz
Clients: Cem Turgu and Adriana Alegria
Furniture: namuh, Luis Fernando Luna
Film: Montse Roma and sabi

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New York has passed a bill that prohibits fossil fuels being used for power, heating and cooking in new buildings constructed in the state, setting “a new standard for the future of building design” according to AIA New York president Matt Bremer.

Originally introduced to the New York State Senate in 2021 by senator Brian Kavanagh, the All-Electric Building Act prohibits the use of fossil fuels such as oil and gas in the operational infrastructure of new buildings in the state.

“New York has once again taken a massive, nation-leading step forward in our fight against climate destruction,” said Kavanagh.

“By prohibiting the use of fossil fuels in new construction, we are not just curbing the environmental impact of our building stock, but transforming the future of New York’s green economy.”

Bill prohibits “installation of systems that can be used for the combustion of fossil fuels”

Under the law, local authorities must prohibit the “installation of systems that can be used for the combustion of fossil fuels in new construction”.

It will go into effect for new single-family residences and low-rise buildings under six storeys built after 2023 and for all remaining buildings in July 2027.

In the bill, the drafters cited a US Energy Information Administration statistic, which asserts 28 per cent of the nation’s energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings.

“We applaud the passage of the All-Electric Buildings Act”

The bill was welcomed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

“We applaud the passage of the All-Electric Buildings Act,” said AIA New York president Matt Bremer. “This visionary legislation will set a new standard for the future of building design and construction in our state and serve as an example for others to follow.”

“As architects, we are eager to take on this challenge and design buildings that are sustainable and resilient as well as beautiful and functional and that will benefit all New Yorkers for generations to come,” he continued.

There are a few exemptions to the rule that provide allowances for backup generators for buildings such as commercial food establishments, laboratories and hospitals but only in an “area of such building where it is technically infeasible to prohibit fossil fuel usage”.

Fossil fuel usage in buildings is only one aspect of the drive to make architecture more sustainable. In recent years, architects and critics have been highlighting the need to reduce “embodied carbon” – or the amount of carbon that goes into the extraction, transportation and construction of materials used in buildings.

Prior to the bill’s passage, a number of all-electric building proposals have been put forward for large-scale projects, such as UK studio Foster + Partners’ design for a supertall skyscraper in Manhattan.

Header photo by Chris Isherwood.

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Dezeen School Shows: we’ve picked seven student projects featured on Dezeen School Shows that reflect people’s lived experience, focusing on their gender and sexuality.

Throughout their university projects, these undergraduate and postgraduate students have chosen to highlight the needs and outlooks of people in relation to their sexual preferences and gender identities.

Projects in this roundup include a harness designed to reinstate femininity post-mastectomy, a collection of ceramics that celebrate women’s femininity in Mexican culture and the reinstating of an LGBTQ+ space in a former queer club venue in New York.

These projects come from students enrolled on jewellery design, product design, architecture, industrial design and fashion design courses at international institutions including INDA, Lucerne School of Art and Design, University of Dundee, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Centro de Diseño y Comunicación, University at Buffalo and University of Art and Design Linz.

Dessus et Dessous by Megan Kelso

During her time studying jewellery design at Lucerne School of Art and Design, Megan Kelso created a collection of harnesses for people who have undergone mastectomies in order to fight breast cancer.

The designs aim to reinstate confidence in the wearer’s body image in the absence of one or both breasts.

“From one day to the next, women can be confronted with the loss of an identity-defining body part, triggering profound questions about their own fragility and femininity,” said Kelso. “Beautiful over- and undergarments can reinforce body positivity.”

“As a trained dressmaker I understand the female body and as a jewellery maker, I am aware of the power of bodily adornments. Here, I’ve created a set of designs that are suitable for both everyday and occasionwear, facilitating a creative and self-assured approach towards the wearer’s own body image.”

Student: Megan Kelso
School: Lucerne School of Art and Design
Course: BA XS Jewellery

View the full school show ›

Boys Will Be Boys by Greg Sutherland

Greg Sutherland’s project during his studies at the University of Dundee named Boys Will Be Boys manifests as a necklace made up of a series of discs displaying photographs of nipples.

Sutherland drew on his own lived experience as a gay man for the piece, which also draws on themes of masculinity, the internet and societal obsession with body image among other influences.

“Photography of the body provides substantial inspiration for my work, and I use it directly as a medium for creating jewellery,” said Sutherland. “I view my pieces as possessing cyclical qualities, designing from the body and for the body.”

“I also take inspiration from pop culture, traditional symbolism and the architecture of my hometown, which I use as a metaphor to express feelings of suppression, frustration and constriction.”

Student: Greg Sutherland
School: University of Dundee
Course: BDes Jewellery and Metal Design

View the full school show ›

Shedding Skin by Anna Martić, Stefan Schönauer and Michalina Zadykowicz

Industrial design students at University of Applied Arts Vienna, Anna Martić, Stefan Schönauer and Michalina Zadykowicz designed a wearable object that aims to help alleviate the struggles of queer people when coming to terms with their own bodies and identities.

The garment has a nude-coloured under layer with pastel-coloured layers that move dynamically when the wearer is in motion.

“This handcrafted, wearable object shows the transition of the constricted body to one that is free and nonconforming,” said Martić, Schönauer and Zadykowicz.

“An internal metamorphosis that is displayed on the outside by a garment transforms itself from a constrictive, drab shell into a flowing gown.”

Students: Anna Martić, Stefan Schönauer and Michalina Zadykowicz
School: University of Applied Arts Vienna
Course: Design Investigations (Industrial Design 2)

View the full school show ›

Cuerpa by Adelaida Cortés

Adelaida Cortés created a series of ceramic vessels during her studies at Centro de Diseño y Comunicación, which comments on the bodily autonomy of Mexican women.

The collection named Cuerpa consists of textural bowls and vases glazed in a range of pastels and muted colours.

“Spanish is a language that has grammatical gender – it means that inanimate objects have a pronoun or article,” said Cortés. “We are used to assuming that every noun that ends in the letter ‘O’ is a male gender, even when talking about nouns that can be neutral or both.”

“When we mention ‘Cuerpo’ it means the human body, and we think about a masculine subject. I made ‘Cuerpa’ to materialise and give power and identity to the stories of the Mexican women’s bodies.”

Student: Adelaida Cortés
School: Centro de Diseño y Comunicación
Course: BA Industrial Design

View the full school show ›

Lost Histories by Christopher Sweeney

During his time at University at Buffalo studying architecture, Christopher Sweeney chose to focus on a building in Buffalo, New York, that housed the queer venue named Swan Club in the early 1980s.

Now a high end restaurant, the project sees the building stripped back and a queer space reinstated into a LGBTQ+ exhibition area.

“The recent demolition of an adjacent building both physically reveals the site while inviting an exploration of this history of erasure in LGBTQ communities,” said Sweeney.

“Lost Histories reimagines 437 Ellicott as an exhibition space for physical fragments of demolished queer spaces in Buffalo, alongside the names of those who died during the AIDS epidemic, as recorded in The Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive.”

Student: Christopher Sweeney
School: University at Buffalo
Course: Master of Architecture

View the full school show ›

I Is Another by Shari Bartko

Fashion and technology student at University of Art and Design Linz, Shari Bartko created a series of garments that aim to question the construct of gender.

The pieces are made from patterned fabric and include stripes, florals and checkerboard patterns with asymmetrical details, including both the absence and featuring of sleeves and collars.

“The definition of gender itself is shifting towards the blurriness of its boundaries,” said Bartko. “After all, what is gender?”

“When we’ve discovered that reality is a construct – do genders even exist?”

Student: Shari Bartko
School: University of Art and Design Linz
Course: Fashion and Technology

View the full school show ›

Not Yet Defined by Oliver Rene Alunović

Oliver Rene Alunović created a cavernous, textural space that aims to deconstruct gender norms as part of his architecture studies at University of Applied Arts Vienna, Institute of Architecture.

The environment encourages physical interactions between the walls and floors and the bodies of the people who enter.

“Not Yet Defined investigates a non-biased, non-binary inclusive body culture in a socio-cultural context that is dominated by gender separating beliefs and attitudes,” said Alunović. “Sheltered habitats are being created where differences in haptics lead to explorations of surface qualities and invite the body for interaction.”

“The spatial formulations try not to dictate how the interaction is going to happen – the body seeks effects that are being triggered by the architecture.”

Student: Oliver Rene Alunović
School: University of Applied Arts Vienna, Institute of Architecture
Course: Architectural Design

View the full school show ›

Partnership content

These projects are presented in school shows from institutions that partner with Dezeen. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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