Hasta La Ideas

London architecture team Softkill Design has designed a conceptual house that would be 3D printed in sections in a factory and fitted together on site (+ interview transcript).

Designed to cantilever out from a hillside, the structure of the house was generated using an algorithm that imitates bone growth to deposit material where it is needed along lines of stress, resulting in a fibrous web rather than a solid envelope.

The structure is porous, allowing rain to permeate, with waterproofing on the inside rather than the outside.

The house would be printed in 31 sections using the largest 3D printer currently available, then transported by truck to the site and fitted together.

Aaron Silver of Softkill Design told Dezeen that 3D printing could result in cheaper buildings that use less materials. “I think there really is an interesting future for architecture and 3D printing,” he said. “You have great cost savings, material efficiency, things like that, which architects are vastly interested in.”

Silver added that cladding materials and roofing could be printed as flexible fabrics and draped over buildings. Softkill Design are developing printed “curtains” that could be used “as interior membrane surfaces or exterior, water-resistant panelling and surfaces.”

Silver spoke to Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs at the 3D Printshow in London last week. See all our stories about 3D printing.

Here’s the transcript of the interview:

Aaron Silver: My name is Aaron Silver, I am part of Softkill Design, and we are a team of architects and researchers who originally formed at the Architectural Association here in London. This project here is about a year’s worth of research into structural optimisation in architecture and 3D printing in architecture.

So the project is a 3D-printed cantilevering house, and really it is research based on distributing material along the lines of stress. We created an algorithm that mimics bone growth so really we are depositing material only where it is most necessary and most structurally efficient. Also, as we are designers and architects, it is not a purely structural object, we also tried to design with it and create our own forms.

Marcus Fairs: So rather than printing out a standard building typology, you are looking at what the 3D printing technology can do to optimise the use of materials and come up with new forms.

Aaron Silver: Yeah, absolutely. We were designing within a certain range of constraints such as transport and the existing size of printers. So the house is ultimately composed of 31 individual pieces, which then interlock in a kind of three dimensional puzzle. They don’t need any adhesive because of the fibre structure. They kind of just interlock and stay in place.

Marcus Fairs: So this would be made in sections, in a controlled environment, and then taken to the site?

Aaron Silver: Yeah. So one strategy that a lot of people have been experimenting with is constructing a very large 3D printer on site. The printer is essentially the size of the structure that is being built. But we were interested in working within the constraints of the existing technologies. For us, it made more sense to work within a controlled environment and then take it to the site.

Marcus Fairs: It looks like a bone opened up or Vermicelli or something like that, but apart from the structure, is it waterproof? Is it a viable construction method? Is it liveable?

Aaron Silver: We decided was to leave the fibrous material on the exterior. As you can see, up close, the interior surface is where the waterproofing is. So water is absorbed, and the waterproofing is on the interior. What is not shown in the model is the translucent window membrane which isn’t part of the structure.

Marcus Fairs: What material would it be printed in?

Aaron Silver: So this [model] was printed in plastic, plastic powder. But ultimately it can be programmed to accommodate any kind of material. It made sense now to consider just working with the one material, as you can’t really print in multiple materials so well just yet. So we also wanted to give ourselves that design constraint, but ultimately we are considering it to be plastic.

Marcus Fairs: And how exciting and how realistic are the opportunities for 3D printing in architecture? Will it transform the way that buildings are built? Or will it be a specialist, one-off, luxury, rich man’s thing?

Aaron Silver: Sure. I think at the moment, as you said, kind of luxurious, maybe one-off pavilions, things like that. But I think there really is an interesting future for architecture and 3D printing; because you have great cost savings, material efficiency, things like that, which architects are vastly interested in. That is where 3D printing is really pushing the discipline and architects can really take advantage of this.

Marcus Fairs: And do you have plans to make any of this in 1:1 size?

Aaron Silver: Not as of yet, but certainly we would like to prototype on a larger scale. This is 1:33 scale at the moment.

Marcus Fairs: And these fabrics, what are these? Are these proposed cladding systems or clothing?

Aaron Silver: This was a part of the original research. These are curtains which we were considering either as interior membrane surfaces or exterior, water-resistant panelling and surfaces. What we were looking at was controlling bending and movement flexibility just throughout the geometry itself. On one side you have slightly different geometry to the other, which gives different flexibility on either side.

Here is some more information about the project from Softkill Design:

Softkill Design investigated the architectural potential of the latest Selective Laser Sintering technologies, testing the boundaries of large scale 3D printing by designing with computer algorithms that micro-organize the printed material itself. With the support of Materialise, Softkill Design produced a high-resolution prototype of a 3D Printed house at 1:33 scale. The model consists of 30 detailed fibrous pieces which can be assembled into one continuous cantilevering structure, without need for any adhesive material.

The arrangement of 0.7mm radius fibres displays a range of flexible textures and the ability to produce in-built architectural elements, such as structure, furniture, stairs, and façade, all in one instance. The Softkill house moves away from heavy, compression based 3d printing of on-site buildings, instead proposing lightweight, high-resolution, optimised structures which, at life scale, are manageable truck-sized pieces that can be printed off site and later assembled on site.

Softkill Design is a London based team of architects (Nicholette Chan, Gilles Retsin, Aaron Silver, Sophia Tang) researching new methods of generative design for additive manufacturing. The unique workflow aims to produce intelligent designs which intuitively utilize 3D-print technology. Research was founded at the Architectural Association School of Architecture’s Design Research Lab in the studio of Robert Stuart-Smith. Research prototypes were generously supported by Materialise, with additional support from VoxelJet, and Sirris.

Name of the designers: Softkill Design – Nicholette Chan, Gilles Retsin, Aaron Silver, Sophia Tang
Title of the work: Prototype for a 3D-Printed House
Materials used: (3D Print) Laser Sintered Powder, (Base) Foam, MDF Board, Textured Paint
Year produced: 2012
Sponsorship: Materialise

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World Architecture Festival 2012: in this movie, Australian architect Jeff Morehen of Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs how the workplaces of the future should be “more hybrid in their nature” and accommodate public facilities, just like his Darling Quarter offices in Sydney that won the office category at the World Architecture Festival this month.

Located beside the harbour, the building curls around a large open space to create a public park and children’s play area. “Putting an office in a park was quite an unusual commission,” says Morehen, before explaining how his team had to overcome the “corporate nature and privatisation” that usually accompanies this kind of commercial building.

Above: photograph is by Florian Groehn

The architect compares the project to some of the public buildings his studio has worked on. “Often libraries that we’re invited to do are more than a library, they become a community meeting space with a whole series of overlaid functions,” he explains. “I think it’s very natural that we start thinking about that for our workplaces.”

Cafes, bars and restaurants line the edge of the ground floor, creating open spaces that can also be used as workplaces. Morehen describes how the current generation of office workers are “no longer tied to desks” and can use the city as their workplace. ”No longer are we individuals just tapping away at computers, he says. “More and more we’re collaborative and we need a range of settings to do that.”

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

Photography is by John Gollings, apart from where otherwise stated.

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nature” – Jeff Morehen on Darling Quarter appeared first on Dezeen.

News: consumers can save money by printing products at home rather than shopping for them, according to Janne Kyttanen, co-founder of design studio Freedom of Creation and creative director of 3D printer company 3D Systems (+ interview).

Kyttanen said 3D printers are now so affordable that you they can print “normal household products” more cheaply than you can buy them. “This iPod Nano holder for example costs two Euros to make,” he adds, holding a plastic strap, which was printed in a just over an hour on 3D Systems’ new Cube printer (above). “So why go buy something when you could just make your own things?”

Freedom of Creation was one of the first design studios to experiment with 3D printing, presenting a series of printed lights in Milan in 2003. Last year the Amsterdam-based studio was bought by 3D Systems and Kyttanen became creative director of the South Carolina company in the process.

Earlier this year, Kyttanen oversaw the launch of Cube, a £1,199 extrusion printer aimed at the domestic market. “It’s an entry-level machine for anybody to buy for the home,” said Kyttanen.

Kyttanen spoke to Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs at the 3D Printshow in London about the way the 3D printing landscape has changed over the last decade. For more from the show, see our interview with MakerBot CEO and co-founder Bre Pettis.

All our stories about 3D printing | All our stories about Freedom of Creation

Here’s an edited transcript of the interview with Kyttanen:

Marcus Fairs: “We first met in Milan nine years ago, at the first Freedom of Creation show.”

Janne Kyttanen: “Nine years ago, yeah.”

Marcus Fairs: “That was the first time I’d seen objects that had any design sensibility that had been made using 3D printing techniques. Tell us about that adventure and what’s happened to you and what’s happened to 3D printing in the last nine years.”

Janne Kyttanen: “When I started everything was very, very expensive so it was very difficult to get the whole thing going. My dream was always to start an industry instead of designing individual products. So I think the first five, six, seven years were extremely difficult both financially and in terms of having people believe in the vision. Only in the last three years things have exponentially started moving forward to an industry that I always envisioned. And especially the last year. It’s going great.”

Marcus Fairs: “And why has it suddenly taken off in the last two or three years?”

Janne Kyttanen: “There’s some [3D printing] patents that have run out and of course there’s now massive awareness towards the whole story; and to be honest the pricing. You can [print] normal household products, like this iPod Nano holder for example, which costs two Euros to make. So why go buy something when you could just make your own things?”

Marcus Fairs: “You mentioned patents expiring. So companies that had the patents for these manufacturing technologies were preventing it from being widely taken up?”

Janne Kyttanen: “That happens in any technology. Once restrictions are removed, the bigger crowd starts to flourish.”

Marcus Fairs: “Freedom Of Creation is now owned by 3D Systems. Tell us about that merger, that takeover, and tell us about the company you now work for.”

Janne Kyttanen: “That happened about a year and a half ago. We’ve been talking for a number of years about how I always envisioned that the consumer world would be the final frontier for this type of adventure. They had something that I needed: technology, software, finance and a whole bunch of people running in the same direction. I had of course 12 years of valuable content that we can just quickly get going, instead of them getting other designers or buying somewhere else to get it going. So it was for me a match made in heaven.”

Marcus Fairs: “And they’re a company that makes 3D printing machines?”

Janne Kyttanen: “Yeah. 3D Systems originally started 25 years ago, so it actually invented the whole technology and the whole industry. [3D Systems co-founder] Chuck Hull invented stereolithography [in 1986]. But we have pretty much all the print platforms: stereolithography, selective laser sintering and so on. And the latest venture is on a bigger scale: we’re entering the consumer market with the Cube.”

Marcus Fairs: “And the Cube is what?”

Janne Kyttanen: “It’s an extrusion machine that has a heated nozzle that makes things in 3D. It’s very very simple.”

Marcus Fairs: “And this is aimed at the consumer market?”

Janne Kyttanen: “Yeah, yeah. It’s £1,199. So it’s an entry-level machine for anybody to buy for the home.”

Marcus Fairs: “So this is not aimed at designers to prototype products with; it’s aimed families to have fun with?”

Janne Kyttanen: “Yeah I mean we have a slogan called ‘it’s for kids from eight to eighty’. So anybody can use it.”

Marcus Fairs: “And where is this kind of technology taking manufacturing, taking the design world? There’s been a lot of people saying ‘Oh it’s the end of the big manufacturing cycle of, you know, big mega-brands and mega-corporations’, but is it? Or is it just a bit of fun?”

Janne Kyttanen: “Wasn’t the web going to be the killer for paper? And so forth. So I don’t think anything will replace anything, it’s just that a massive 3D manufacturing industry will also grow I believe. These are just some new technologies, just a new thing.”

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“cheaper than shopping” appeared first on Dezeen.

News: cheap 3D printers mean manufacturing can again take place at home as it did before the industrial revolution, according to MakerBot Industries CEO and co-founder Bre Pettis (+ audio).

Above: MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis talks to Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs

“Before the industrial revolution everybody did work at home; there was a cottage industry,” said Pettis (pictured above), who spoke to Dezeen today at 3D Printshow in London, where his company launched a new desktop printer costing $2,200. “Then you had to go to the factory to work. Now we’re bringing the factory back to the individual.”

Pettis was in London to unveil MakerBot’s Replicator 2 3D printer, which he claims is the first affordable printer that does not require specialist knowledge to operate. “We’ve just put the factory in a microwave-sized box that you can put on your desk and have at home,” said Pettis.

Brooklyn-based MakerBot was founded in 2009 with the goal of producing affordable 3D printers for the home and it has become one of the best-known brands in the rapidly expanding 3D printing and open-source design movement.

Pettis claimed that 3D printing was now advanced enough to produce consumer items on demand; last month the company opened its first store in New York, selling MakerBots and products printed in store on the devices. “This bracelet I’m holding took fifteen minutes to make,” he said.

3D Printshow is the UK’s first exhibition dedicated to 3D printing and runs until 21 October at The Brewery, London EC1.

3D printing and open design have been hot topics recently, with several projects at the Istanbul Design Biennial exploring possible applications for the technology and gun enthusiasts releasing blueprints to print guns.

Here’s a transcript of the interview, conducted by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs:

Bre Pettis: “I’m Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot Industries and we make MakerBots. We just came out with the MakerBot Replicator 2. It’s a desktop 3D printer, which means you can have ideas and make them too. You can create models and 3D print them. And it’s an exciting time because this technology used to be really big machines that were inaccessible in elite institutions and now you can just have one on your desktop or on your coffee table at home and you can just make the things.”

Marcus Fairs: “Do you think this is the first machine that’s consumer friendly? You don’t need to be a geek, you don’t need to be an expert programmer to buy and use this machine – have we got to that stage yet?”

Bre Pettis: “Yes, the thing that’s most exciting for the average user is that we just launched a whole software suite called MakerWare, and it’s makes it so much easier. You literally just drag and drop, you position it how you want it and you press make, and it just does it for you. So it’s gone from a command-line tool, which is kind of hard to use, to a super easy, really nice software package that makes it easy for everyone to make the things they want.”

Marcus Fairs: “People are getting very excited about 3D printing and other types of open-source manufacturing. Is that excitement a bit premature or is there really going to be a revolution in the way that objects are designed and manufactured?”

Bre Pettis: “Well, it’s interesting. Before the industrial revolution everybody did work at home, there was a cottage industry. And then when the Jacquard loom and these kinds of things came along, you had to go to the factory to work. But we’ve just put the factory in a microwave-sized box that you can put on your desk and have at home. So it’s an interesting kind of cycle of life of manufacturing now that we’re bringing the factory back to the individual.”

Marcus Fairs: “And how much do you think this will change the existing structure where you have a designer who designs a product and a factory or brand who manufactures it – how will that existing top-down model be changed by this kind of technology?”

Bre Pettis: “So industrial designers, engineers and architects are actually the ones [whose] whole workflow has changed by this. They used to have to have an idea, send it off to a modelling house, have it take a couple of weeks or a month and then iterate on a monthly cycle. With a MakerBot you iterate on an hourly cycle, in some cases minutes – this bracelet I’m holding took fifteen minutes to make and I’m just cranking them out all day here.

“So for the people who are making products, this just changes their life. It makes everything so much faster, so much easier, so much more accessible. If you have one of these on your desk you can actually try making the things that you’re working on, and if you don’t like them you can throw them away, you don’t have to sign up for a service or have to stress out about how much it costs; it’s inexpensive. You can fail as many times as you need to to be successful.”

Marcus Fairs: “But you’re talking about prototypes. I mean, how far away are we from finished products being printed on demand for consumers?”

Bre Pettis: “So in New York City we just opened a retail store, and we do two things there – we sell MakerBots, and we sell things made on a MakerBot, and we literally have a bank of MakerBots that just make things 24 hours a day for the store.”

Marcus Fairs: “And what are the best-selling products that you make?”

Bre Pettis: “Right now the best-selling products are jewellery and we have this little contraption that’s like a heart that’s made out of gears, and people really like that too, it’s made by a designer named Emmett.”

Marcus Fairs: “So it’s still sort of small products, sort of novelty value products – what about the huge industrial applications, the mass applications, the larger products?”

Bre Pettis: “The true MakerBot operator has no limitations. This machine we just launched has a massive 410 cubic inch build volume, which means you can actually make really big things, you can make a pair of shoes if you want to. The cool thing is that if you want to make something bigger, you just make it in component parts, and then you either make snaps, so it snaps together, or you glue it together and you can make things as big as you want, if you make it in components.”

Marcus Fairs: “So this has just come out and how much does it retail for?”

Bre Pettis: “This retails for $2,200, and it’s really a great affordable machine that’s also just rock solid. We’re really proud of it.”

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back to the individual” appeared first on Dezeen.

World Architecture Festival 2012: in this movie we filmed, architect Josefin Larsson of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs how the residents of Stockholm want it to be a “low city”, but that her studio’s controversial high-rise hotel there is a “real midget” compared to the skyscrapers of Singapore, where the World Architecture Festival took place.

Above: photograph is by Ola Fogelström

The Victoria Tower, which won the award in the hotel and leisure category, stands at 117 metres in height. “It’s a controversial subject in Sweden because there aren’t that many high buildings,” says Larsson, as she explains how it was a dream of both architect Gert Wingårdh and hotel-owner Arthur Buchardt to build a tower.

Above: photograph is by Åke E:son Lindman

She explains how Europe tends to “stick to the scale of their historical buildings” but that this building was designed to be “a landmark” that can be seen from afar.

Above: photograph is by Åke E:son Lindman

Behind the tessellated facade of coloured glass, the building contains 300 guest rooms and was designed for Scandinavian chain Scandic Hotels. Larsson describes the rooms as “not luxury, fairly small” but with “good food and good locations”.

Above: photograph is by Tord-Rikard Söderström

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival, which we’re publishing over the next few days. See all the movies so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

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– Josefin Larsson on Victoria Tower appeared first on Dezeen.