Each tab on this credit card-sized pack by American designers Bolt Group can be torn off and used as a USB stick.
The GIGS.2.GO pack by Bolt Group is made of recycled paper pulp and contains four tear-off tabs with a USB flash drive in each.
The concept was inspired by Bolt Group designers frequently having problems sharing presentation and CAD files with clients.
“Burning CDs is slow and impractical, and nobody wants to leave behind their trusty—and expensive—32GB thumb drive. We saw a need for a smaller pack of drives that could be shared and even left behind with a client,” said designer Kurt Rampton.
Though the drives are designed to last for many uses, the paper and electronic components can eventually be separated and recycled.
A door and deep-framed window are set into the glass house-shaped facade of this cupcake shop in Taiwan by J.C. Architecture.
Taiwanese studio J.C. Architecture used the cake boxes as a starting point for the interior design. “We wanted to create a space that derives from the actual product itself,” say the architects. “We took the idea of the gift packaging and studied the movement of folding.”
Les Bebes Cupcakery has a house-shaped shop frontage that extends beyond the facade of the building with a floor-to-ceiling glass window, interrupted by a solid black doorway.
A black-framed box with a yellow interior pushes through the glass, acting as a display cabinet for the cupcakes.
Inside the shop, a line of small shelves appears to have folded out of the white walls like box lids, revealing squares of dark tiles behind.
Dark tiles are also used to border a raised bar area, which is lined with yellow and black stools.
This house by Spanish architect Daniel Isern looks like a cluster of concrete cubes, stacked up on a steep hillside on the outskirts of Barcelona.
The rural site faces out towards the coast, so Daniel Isern designed the four-storey residence with balconies and terraces on three of its floors, as well as a pair of glazed sunrooms.
The form of the building comprises overlapping volumes that integrate several cantilevers. Isern explains: “The reduced dimensions of the plot and the desire to leave the minimum imprint on the land led us to seek out a floor plan which, matching the trees that surround it, emerges from a trunk well anchored to the land and opens up in branches on each floor.”
The entrance to the house is on the uppermost floor. There are no rooms at this level, so residents work their way downstairs to find a living room and bedroom on the next level down, a dining room below that and a master bedroom on the bottom floor.
A concrete walls extends out from the north and south sides of the house and integrates a storage area for firewood.
“For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.” Claude Monet.
The project for this house emerged from a very simple premise, to build on a very steep piece of land with a gradient of almost 100%, boasting wonderful views and on a tight budget. It was this highly complicated plot of land, surrounded by pine trees, that defined a good part of this project. The land, and its perspectives, constantly changing as the hours pass, the colour of the trees, the movement of sun and shadows…
On the one hand, the reduced dimensions of the plot and its complex orography, and on the other the desire to leave the minimum imprint on the land led us to seek out a floorplan which, matching the trees that surround it, emerges from a trunk well anchored to the land and opens up in braches on each floor, in such a way that each branch becomes the terrace of the upper level at the same time as it becomes the porch of the lower one.
All this helps create a very formal building, with huge cantilevers facing out to emptiness, the woods and the sea which lie before it. A structure which opens up to these views and the sun, and which thanks to the terraces and the porches confuse the interior with the exterior. A building which is equally formal in both its volume and the materials which compose it. Concrete, iron, timber and stone combining in a way that emphasises the character of each one. In the end, the whole building represents a dialogue between emptiness and fullness, between materials, between outside and inside; seeking out a balance between these highly contrasting parts.
In this extract from Print Shift, our one-off publication about 3D printing, editor Claire Barrett reports on the growing number of medical applications for the emerging technology and asks how soon we can expect 3D-printed organ transplants.
Imagine printing a human liver. Or a kidney. One day this will be possible, and with a desperate global shortage of organs for transplant, the medical industry is pouring resources into developing technologies that will make this a reality.
“Eighteen people die every day in the US waiting for a transplant,” says Michael Renard, executive vice president for commercial operations at San Diego-based Organovo, one of the companies that is leading the way in tissue engineering.
There is a huge amount of excitement around the potential for printing human tissue. Dr Anthony Atala, director at North Carolina’s Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, received a standing ovation at a 2011 TED talk where he printed a prototype human kidney live on stage using living cells. Although a fully functioning kidney for transplant is many years away, Atala’s primitive organ produces a urine-like substance.
Like other forms of 3D printing, living tissue is printed layer by layer. First a layer of cells is laid down by the printer, followed by a layer of hydrogel that operates as a scaffold material; then the process repeats. The cells fuse, and the hydrogel is removed to create a piece of material made entirely of human cells. This is then moved to a bioreactor, where the tissue continues to grow – as it would in nature – into its final form.
“Our approach is consistent with other forms of 3D printing because it’s an additive process,” says Renard, “but what is unique is our application of the process in the field of cell biology and tissue engineering.”
Currently it is possible to print small pieces of tissue; the problem lies in scaling this and creating a vascular system that delivers oxygen to the cells and removes carbon dioxide. Without this, the cells will die.
In reality, printed organs are a long way away. “In the next 10 years it is possible that [printed] supplemental tissues, ones that aid in regeneration – such as nerve grafts, patches to assist a heart condition, blood vessel segments or cartilage for a degenerating joint – will make it to the clinic,” says Renard. “But more advanced replacement tissues will most likely be in 20 years or more.”
However, scientists believe that strips of printed tissue will soon be advanced enough to be used to test new drugs. These risk-free tests will help determine whether drugs should move forward to expensive human clinical trials.
Alongside human tissue, 3D printing is being used to develop body parts. In February, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, announced it had used 3D printing to create an artificial ear for treating a congenital deformity called microtia, where the ear is underdeveloped, or for those who’d lost part of an ear to cancer or an accident.
An alternative to painful rib grafts, which result in ears that neither function well nor look natural, a normal ear is scanned and a mould made by a 3D printer. Collagen is injected into the mould, which acts as a scaffold in the formation of cartilage. The hope is that human trials could take place within three years.
3D printed foetuses by Jorge Lopes
Although this work is headline-grabbing, 3D printing is already common within the healthcare realm. It is used to custom-print hearing aids, and as an alternative to fixed dental braces. Every day, Invisalign – a company that offers a 3D-printed alternative to fixed braces – prints 60,000 sets of transparent custom-made moulds that the wearer changes every two weeks to realign the teeth.
Additive manufacturing is also being used as a visualisation tool to pre-plan surgery. For instance, a heart or fractured leg bone can be scanned and printed to allow the surgeon to intimately understand the anatomy before performing an operation. Surgeons today are using bespoke printed drill and saw guides, which, once the body is opened up, are dropped into place to ensure accurate orientation of the drill in such procedures as hip or knee replacements.
More dramatically, additive manufacturing was used in 2011 to create an entirely new lower jaw for an 83-year-old woman whose own was destroyed by a chronic infection and who was considered too old to sustain reconstructive surgery. Printed in titanium powder by Dutch company LayerWise and only a third heavier than the original, it was covered in bioceramic, a material that ensures the body doesn’t reject the implant. Cavities in the printed jaw allowed for muscle reattachment and grooves for the regrowth of nerves.
These 3D-printed models are now commonly used to help explain foetal abnormalities to parents, or necessary surgical procedures once the child is born. Most recently Lopes printed out a 3D model of an unborn child for two visually impaired parents who were unable to see their child through regular ultrasound imagery. “It was a very emotional moment,” he says.
Inevitably such technologies will reach the mainstream. Since last year, Japanese 3D-printing company Fasotec has offered its Shape of an Angel service to expectant parents at a Toyko clinic. For 100,000 yen parents can receive a 3D-printed model of the foetus inside the womb. The mother’s body is printed in clear resin, with the foetus in white.
3D printing also has huge potential to help disability. Magic Arms is shortlisted for the Design Museum’s Design of the Year 2013, and enables Emma Lavelle, a child born with arthrogryposis, to use her arms, a function that was previously impossible. Magic Arms is Emma’s nickname for the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX), an assistive device made up of a bespoke butterfly-patterned jacket and arms that are 3D-printed in durable ABS plastic.
The design was originally made with CNC technology for patients older than two-year-old Emma, but 3D printing enabled it to be translated into a smaller version that is light enough for Emma to wear and take everywhere. If a piece breaks, her mother can simply photograph the broken element and a new one is printed out and sent through the post.
Fairing prosthetic by Bespoke Innovations
The technology is similarly revolutionising prosthetics. The manufacturer Bespoke Innovations produces Fairings, a 3D-printed covering that can be personalised and worn around the existing prosthetic. Typically a prosthetic will exist either as naked hardware – essentially a pipe – or covered with foam in an attempt to match skin tone and tissue density. “This is the first time there’s been a third option,” says founder and industrial designer Scott Summit.
The sound leg is 3D-scanned to ensure body symmetry, and a customised design is 3D-printed to achieve the basic Fairing. This can then be wrapped in different materials such as leather, which can be laser tattooed, and parts can be coated in metal to achieve a final bespoke design that the owner is proud to wear. “The Fairing is just a way that somebody might message to the world, ‘Hey, look, it’s fine,'” he says.
The greatest benefit of putting 3D printing and 3D scanning together is “that you can start getting rid of the one-size-fits-all mentality,” says Summit. While a “small, medium, large universe”, as Summit prefers to call it, is perfectly fine for the most part, when you have specific needs – such as a prosthetic limb or a bone defect – the opportunity to personalise your healthcare is tremendous. At a time when healthcare is moving away from the standardised model that developed after the Second World War, 3D printing looks set to be right at the heart of this revolution.
Italian studio Gosplan inserted a perforated metal gate into a fifteenth century marble doorway as part of their renovation of this fashion boutique in Genoa.
Gosplan was influenced by the doorways of ancient Italian palaces when designing the perforated gate that marks the entrance to the store, which is located in the city’s historic centre.
“The door is a free interpretation of doors of ancient Genoa palaces,” explains the designer. “The small holes are a metaphor for the large ancient nails, while the large hole in the centre replaces the door knocker.”
Called Il Salotto, which means “Living Room” in Italian, the boutique has vaulted ceilings and large windows with a bright blue linoleum floor that contrasts with the rough plastered walls.
Clothes, bags and shoes hang from white-painted reinforcing rods, which have been bent into angular formations that protrude from the walls and floors.
Coat hangers and mirror frames are also constructed from the bent rods, along with a cage-like chandelier that descends from the ceiling and a large circular rail from which curtains hang to enclose dressing rooms.
Brightly coloured cables are strung around the shop with bare lightbulbs dangling loosely from the ceiling.
The shop counter is made from coloured MDF and features a tiled recess used to display jewellery.
The same dove-grey coloured tiles are used to create a unifying band around the walls of the boutique.
The shop is owned by Sara Busiri Vici and Matteo Brizio who also use the space to host small art exhibitions.
Barcelona’s new design museum is an angular metal-clad structure designed by local studio MBM Arquitectes (+ slideshow).
The seven-storey Museu del Disseny de Barcelona is located on the edge of Plaça de les Glories, next door to Jean Nouvel‘s Torre Agbar office tower. Due to the level changes across the site, the building has part of its volume buried beneath the ground and has public entrances on two of its floors.
MBM Arquitectes divided the form of the building into two halves. The bottom section is a bulky volume with glazed walls and a grass roof, while the upper section is a top-heavy structure clad with pre-weathered aluminium panels on every side.
Set to open in spring 2014, the museum will combine the decorative arts, ceramics, textiles and graphic design collections of four existing museums, which have now closed their doors.
The main exhibition hall will be housed in the lower part of the building, while additional exhibitions will take place in galleries on the museum’s upper floors. Other facilities include a large auditorium, a small hall, a public library, education rooms and a bar and cafe.
The area surrounding the museum has been made into a lake, while the grass roof serves as a new public lawn overlooking the water.
The building is the work of MBM Arquitectes, the architecture studio formed by Josep Martorell, Oriol Bohigas and David Mackay, together with Oriol Capdevila and Francesc Gual. The edifice is made up of two parts: one underground (which takes advantage of the slope created by urban development of the plaza) and another which emerges at 14.5 m (at the level of Plaça de les Glòries).
Construction below the height of 14.5m: Most of the surface area of the building is situated below the 14.5m level and is where the more significant installations are housed. They are distributed over two floors and a gallery, and include the main exhibition hall, rooms given over to management and preservation of the DHUB’s collections, the main offices, Clot public library, the documentation centre (DHUBdoc) and rooms for research and educational activities, in addition to high-traffic services such as the bar, restaurant and store. Though below ground level, the basement floor receives natural light from a trench which is worked into the different ground levels and which features a huge lake, creating a dialogue with the outside. Lighting is reinforced with six skylights that look out over the public space and can also be used as showcases for the centre’s contents and activities.
Construction above the height of 14.5m: This part of the building projects over the width of Carrer d’Àvila and has the shape of a slanted parallelepiped. In accordance with the general urban plan it occupies a minimum footprint, primarily in order not to reduce the space earmarked for public use, but also because the vicissitudes of plans to demolish the elevated road and change the tramline route severely limit the space available. The building cantilevers out towards the plaça, enabling the construction potential to be met while at the same time establishing a display of urban architecture over the motorway. This block will house the venues for long- and short-term temporary exhibitions, as well as a small hall and a large auditorium.
Entrance to both parts or bodies that compose the DHUB headquarters is gained through a single vestibule with two points of access: one in Carrer d’Àvila and another in Plaça de les Glòries. Passage through this part of the building is almost inevitable, as it forms a kind of corridor connecting Plaça de les Glòries, the 22@ technological district and Poblenou.
All of the services situated in the basement area can be reached from this semi-public plaza, as well as those on the upper floors by means of a system of escalators, staircases and lifts. While the different spaces have diverse dimensions and architectural characteristics, overall they form a conceptual whole in which the auditorium stands aloft as a fundamental and crowning feature.
Only two materials are used in the building’s exterior, zinc plates and glass, bestowing an industrial feel with metallic accents on the building. The green carpet of the artificial flooring and bright graphics on the pavement are two of the primary components of the outside surfaces. In both cases, the elements employed (natural and manufactured) ensure sustainability and ease of maintenance. The lake, in addition to visually highlighting the work, creates a link between the different levels.
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has completed a hotel in Miyazaki where guest rooms and dining areas surround a central courtyard and wedding chapel (+ slideshow).
Located on the site of a former factory, Garden Terrace Miyazaki comprises a single two-storey building that features bamboo-clad walls and a large sloping roof with overhanging eaves.
A faceted timber canopy shelters the entrance to the hotel, leading through to a reception where guests are faced with a view of the courtyard.
Kengo Kuma and Associates designed this space as a “calm and tranquil environment”, where a landscape of bamboo trees and pools of water provide a scenic setting to the glazed wedding chapel at its centre.
Restaurants and event rooms surround the other sides of the courtyard, while guest rooms are located on the first floor.
Here’s a short description from Kengo Kuma and Associates:
Garden Terrace Miyazaki
The hotel was built at a vast site near JR Miyazaki station, where a factory once stood. Around it houses and aparrments spread in no particular order.
Facilities of the hotel – guest rooms, banquet room and restaurants are arranged to circle the courtyard.
Loosely sloped roof came out as the result of each function underneath. It wraps the entire building – two-storey structure under the deep eaves.
Bamboo is planted and water is laid out in and out of the hotel and its courtyard, providing a calm and tranquil environment that stretches even to the residential area.
Completion: September 2012 Main use: hotel Total floor area: 4562.04 sqm
Dezeen archive: we’ve featured a few monochrome interiors on Dezeen this week, so this latest look back at the Dezeen archive is dedicated to buildings and spaces in shades of black, white and grey. See more monochrome architecture and design »
German artist Tobias Rehberger has created a temporary replica of his favourite Frankfurt bar in a New York hotel and covered the entire thing in bold geometric stripes (+ slideshow).
New York Bar Oppenheimer has exactly the same size and proportions of the original Bar Oppenheimer, a regular hangout for the artistic community in Frankfurt. It contains the same furniture and details, from the lighting fixtures to the tall radiators.
Unlike the original, Rehberger has decorated every surface of the replica bar with black and white stripes, which zigzag in every direction and are interspersed with flashes of red and orange.
The patterns are based on the concept of “dazzle camouflage”, a tactic employed during World War I to make it difficult for soldiers to pinpoint a target.
New York Bar Oppenheimer opened last week at Hôtel Americano, coinciding with the annual Frieze New York art fair. Functioning as both an installation and a working bar, it will remain in place until 14 July.
“The way I look at it is like a suitcase,” Rehberger told Wallpaper magazine. “I’m going to be in New York for a bit so I’m able to pack up my favourite bar and take it with me. And because I’m there for the art fair, the bar has to come dressed as a work of art.”
Here’s some more information from the exhibition organisers:
Tobias Rehberger Bar Oppenheimer
Pilar Corrias, London and Hôtel Americano are pleased to announce a new sculptural artwork, Tobias Rehberger Bar Oppenheimer by the German artist Tobias Rehberger. Presented from 11 May until 14 July 2013, the piece opened to coincide with Frieze New York and is on view at Hôtel Americano.
Rehberger creates objects, sculptures and environments as diverse as they are prolific. Drawing on a repertoire of quotidian objects appropriated from everyday mass-culture, Rehberger translates, alters and expands ordinary situations and objects with which we are familiar. It is in this spirit that Rehberger has created a ‘second edition’ of Bar Oppenheimer, the Frankfurt late-night hangout he frequents and which is at the heart of the city’s artistic community. The work is a sculpture and, at the same time, a fully functioning bar. Rehberger remains faithful to the essence of the original bar: dimensions of space and objects are replicated and re-imagined to produce a familiar yet unfamiliar environment. Vodka Steins, Rehberger’s own favourite drink, are seconded to New York, transporting the artist’s own Frankfurt Oppenheimer Bar experience to Hôtel Americano for two months only.
A place where creatives and thinkers meet to form, discuss, argue, and pursue ideas and follies late into the night, Bar Oppenheimer acts as a catalyst for change. Repatriated in New York as Tobias Rehberger Bar Oppenheimer, the artist is curious as to the effect that its influence will have on a new audience.
11 May – 14 July 2013 Tues – Sat 5pm – midnight Hôtel Americano, 518 W. 27th Street, New York
Plastic extruded from this robotic 3D printer solidifies instantly, allowing it to draw freeform shapes in the air extending from any surface (+ movie).
Unlike normal 3D printers that require a flat and horizontal base, Mataerial prints with plastic that sticks to horizontal, vertical, smooth or irregular surfaces, without the need for additional support structures.
The process, which the designers call “anti-gravity object modelling”, is a form of extrusion that instantly creates chunky three-dimensional rods, rather than slowly building up two-dimensional layers like a standard 3D printer.
“One of the key innovations of anti-gravity object modelling is the use of thermosetting polymers instead of thermoplastics that are used in existing 3D printers,” explained the designers.
A chemical reaction between the two components of the thermosetting polymer causes the material to solidify as it comes out of the nozzle, making it possible to print hanging curves.
The speed of extrusion is dependent on factors such as the desired thickness of the material, but in this example the printer produced one metre in approximately three minutes. The movie’s frame rate was increased up to three times to show the process more quickly.
Here’s some more information from the design team:
Mataerial is the result of the collaborative research between Petr Novikov, Saša Jokić from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Joris Laarman Studio. IAAC tutors representing Open Thesis Fabrication Program provided their advice and professional expertise. During the course of the research we developed a brand new digital fabrication method and a working prototype that can open a door to a number of practical applications. The method that we call Anti-gravity Object Modeling has a patent-pending status.
Mataerial – a brand new method of additive manufacturing. This method allows for creating 3D objects on any given working surface independently of its inclination and smoothness, and without a need of additional support structures. Conventional methods of additive manufacturing have been affected both by gravity and printing environment: creation of 3D objects on irregular or non-horizontal surfaces has so far been treated as impossible. By using innovative extrusion technology we are now able to neutralise the effect of gravity during the course of the printing process. This method gives us a flexibility to create truly natural objects by making 3D curves instead of 2D layers. Unlike 2D layers that are ignorant to the structure of the object, the 3D curves can follow exact stress lines of a custom shape. Finally, our new out of the box printing method can help manufacture structures of almost any size and shape.
One of the key innovations of anti-gravity object modelling is the use of thermosetting polymers instead of thermoplastics that are used in existing 3D printers. The material is cured because of a chemical reaction between two source components with such proportion of extrusion and movement speeds that it comes solid out of the nozzle; this feature makes it possible to print hanging curves without support material.
The desired shape is created by user in CAD software and then transformed into 3d curves describing the shape which are then converted into movement paths for the robotic arm. The thickness of the printed curve can be scaled down to less than a millimeter and can be adjusted during the printing process, by changing the speed of the movement. Colors can be injected in the nozzle in CMYK mode that allows changing of the curve color throughout the printing process.
In our vision, Mataerial can be applied in different fields, from furniture and architecture manufacturing to desktop and space 3d printing.
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