Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: architect and designer Daniel Widrig explains how he uses technology borrowed from the special effects business to design everything from jewellery to skyscrapers.

In this movie we filmed in Miami, Daniel Widrig says that designers can break down boundaries between disciplines by borrowing technologies and tools traditionally associated with one industry and using them in other industries, in unexpected ways.

“A lot of technology we use was originally developed for use in other disciplines such as special effects or the movie industries,” says Widrig. “One could say that boundaries are blurring between industries”

Widrig discusses his projects including a 370-metre tower on the outskirts of Istanbul, Turkey, a collection of dresses produced in collaboration with fashion designer Iris van Herpen and a series of 3D-printed stools.

Widrig trained at the Architecture Association in London and worked at Zaha Hadid Architects prior to starting his own practice in 2009.

His architectural background feeds into his ongoing research into using 3D-printing for clothing and jewellery, says Widrig.

“We work with the body in quite an architectural way: we investigated certain body parts and then we applied design processes to populate body parts with architectural microstructures,” he says.

One of these works was the Kinesis wearable sculptures he produced last year and showed during Design Miami.

For Widrig, it is often the experimental, low-budget projects that yield the most new ideas.

“The most interesting projects for me are the self-imitated projects where you set yourself a goal and an agenda and you work with sometimes really small budgets, but you have the freedom to explore,” he explained.

These then feed into more commercial projects, from experimental furniture to sculpture, computer game design and movie sets.

The music featured in the movie is a track by Simplex. You can listen to his music on Dezeen Music Project.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers is a year-long collaboration with MINI exploring how design and technology are coming together to shape the future.

The post Software advances are “blurring
boundaries between design disciplines” appeared first on Dezeen.

London architect Daniel Widrig is presenting a collection of 3D-printed wearable sculptures during Design Miami this week, including one that looks like an exoskeleton.

Widrig‘s Kinesis collection explores the possibility of creating customised 3D-printed products based on a scan of the wearer’s body so they fit perfectly.

“We have been working with body related objects for a while now,” Widrig told Dezeen. “We originally worked with mannequins which we sculpted ourselves based on standard model sizes. Nevertheless we wanted to go a step further this time and create customised objects that literally merge with the human body.”

“Every body is unique and has its individual oddities, so 3D scanning is the only way to manage a total blending between a specific body’s topography and the designed geometry,” he added.

Using a digital model produced by the 3D scan as a starting point, Widrig analysed the parts of the body where the products would be worn and developed forms that are designed to “emphasise and exaggerate them.”

Two of the pieces are designed to be worn around the neck, with one of them intended to resemble “an inflated skin wrapping around the model’s breast and neck area.”

The other neckpiece is inspired by the expansions and contraction of muscular systems. These two objects take the form of a dense amalgamation of curving sections that resemble sinews or tendons.

The third object comprises a series of connected forms resembling vertebrae, which narrow into ribs that fit over the shoulder blades. “It resembles an exoskeleton growing out of the model’s spine,” said Widrig.

All of the wearable products were manufactured by Belgian 3D printing specialist Materialise from a polyamide/nylon powder using a selective laser sintering process.

Widrig explained that the process is ideal for fashion applications as it can be used to create flexible shapes with high levels of detailing and durability.

“Since our first fashion experiments in 2009, we tried to push the limits of SLS by reducing material thicknesses to a minimum where we wanted objects to be flexible, and gradually thickening up where we required more rigid zones,” he said.

The Kinesis collection is on show at design brand Luminaire’s Design+World event in Miami today.

The post Daniel Widrig creates wearable sculptures
based on a 3D scan of the body appeared first on Dezeen.

London architect Daniel Widrig has collaborated with fashion designer Iris van Herpen and digital manufacturers .MGX by Materialise to create a collection of digitally printed clothing.

Called Escapism, the project is a development of an earlier collaboration between the designers (see our earlier story), to make more lightweight and flexible 3D printed dresses.

The collection was presented at Paris Fashion Week.

Photographs are by Michel Zoeter.

Above: headdress is by Stephen Jones

More projects by Daniel Widrig on Dezeen »
More fashion on Dezeen »

Above: shoes are by United Nude

The following information is from Widrig:

Escapism is a continuation of the collaboration between London based architect Daniel Widrig and dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen.

The project started with Crystallization, the first fashion collection ever featuring 3d printed dresses. Crystallization was launched at the Amsterdam Fashion Week in 2010.

Escapism attempted to further investigate possibilities and potentiality of advanced digital design techniques and computer aided manufacturing in the realm of haute couture fashion design.

Above: shoes are by United Nude

Based on earlier experiences made with digitally manufactured dresses, Escapism pushes the limits of 3D printing in order to increase the wearability of the pieces.

The dresses are composed of clusters of fiber-like elements with minimized diameters. The fineness of the printed lines of the fabric makes the overall objects lightweight, flexible and allows for an economic production.

Above: shoes are by United Nude

The geometric concept further allowed the designers to create larger objects without comprimising wearability and the model’s mobility on the catwalk.

The collection was produced in collaboration with New York based label .MGX by Materialise via selective laser sintering (SLS) in Polyamide.
Escapism was first presented at the Paris Fashion Week earlier this year.

See also:

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Crystallization by Iris van Herpen and Daniel Widrig	Snake&Molting legwear by Camille Cortet	Shell by Julia Krantz