A team of engineers at Autodesk have been pushing the limitations of conventional 3D printing — not by redesigning the machines themselves, but by creating a network to harness their collective power. Autodesk’s “Project Escher” is a new printing system that utilizes the power of several 3D printers at once to fabricate complex parts in unison, reports FastCoDesign. The new system can increase production speed by up to 90%.
While the benefits of 3D printing are undeniable, its lengthy process has impeded it from being rolled out in large-scale additive manufacturing. Designers in industries such as automotive, aerospace and construction want to utilize the power of 3D printing to form complex geometries, but as the printing is measured in weight per hour, large objects can take impossibly long amounts of time.
Project Escher uses a gantry system with suspended 3D printing “bots,” selectively assigning a part of the model to each, producing a fully assembled final object. Autodesk’s hardware lead for the project, Corey Bloome, told FastCoDesign that there are no limits to the amount of printing bots you can have in the gantry, and the speed will increase with each bot added.
As the design currently stands, this system uses only 3D printers, but Bloome said that in theory robotic arms could be added to the gantry, allowing other elements to be embedded in the final assembly. This means that complex objects, such as cars, have the possibility of being “printed” in one sitting.
Autodesk is still developing Project Escher in house, with the vision to start enlisting companies to experiment with their own processes in the near future. For more information, check out Autodesk’s video above, or the Project Escher website.
Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with New London Architecture to give readers the chance to win one of five pairs of tickets to a lecture delivered by architecture collective Assemble later this month. (more…)
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has completed a 55-storey tower in Beijing with exterior glass panels that function as prisms, capturing and refracting daylight (+ slideshow). (more…)
As part of ArchDaily’s coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale, we are presenting a series of articles written by the curators of the exhibitions and installations on show. The following text represents the curatorial statement for the exhibition of the inaugural Baltic Pavilion.
There are transformative efforts at play which are reprogramming an inert region beyond the delineations of separate nation-states. The Baltic Pavilion intends to explore the built environment of the Baltic States as a shared space of ideas. This exhibition and a series of related events presents a cross-section of Baltic space. In light of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch, the developments in this region will unfold as a non-linear stratigraphy.
Recent geopolitical developments around the Baltic States have created a sense of urgency for new spatial practices to be initiated, that both unite the region and underpin the foundations of the European Union. New infrastructural connections in the Baltic Sea, FSRU Independence, the natural gas storage ship in Klaipėda, and Rail Baltica, the pan-Baltic railway project are among the many examples of this new kind of architecture. The Baltic Pavilion attempts to unravel the conventions and instruments operated by a wide range of spatial practices, industries, and infrastructures that are actively transforming the built space of the three Baltic States, and the wider region. Without making distinction between abstract ideas and their material projections, the exhibition seeks to distill parameters and thought structures, to enable the formulation of a range of spatial interventions which aim to reconfigure the inert built environment of the Baltics.
Some elements of this built environment are too inert to be completely reorganised instantaneously—infrastructures, cities, and transport links are currently in a state of function, and so demand simultaneously specific practices to maintain their stability. At the same time, these structures also determine future possibilities. The Baltic Pavilion is interested in an ecology of practices that inscribe new policies onto existing material assemblies through procedures such as addition, transition, translation, integration, and assimilation—making use of what is already at work.
Realia can be understood as a particular material object or idea—linguists use the term to highlight structures that cannot be translated from one language to another. The intersection between power structures, ideologies, and resistances on one side, and the assembly of things on the other, results in realias as authentic responses to specific material parameters. This project proposes a reading of spatial interventions as realia—formed in relation to a place.
The common denominator for the international team working on the Baltic Pavilion is a specific relationship to the Baltic region as a starting point for inquiry—it is an attempt to re-articulate architecture while responding to the logic of a particular place. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania share common processes of the political, economic, cultural and infrastructural transformations – from the central planning of the Soviet Union to the current governmentality of the EU. Perhaps the phenomena of the shifting definition of the Baltic countries is a double fold—from the outside it is addressed as one region whilst on the inside it is often understood as three separate quests for identity. Thus, this project is an attempt to link contrasting concepts while analysing the conditions for integrity of the Baltic States through relation to a wider context.
The project takes a geological approach—it reads the things that compose this flat landscape as a stack of stratigraphic layers. Man-made space is understood as a sedimentary process and its infrastructures, as well as its mineral resources, are assessed as the key parameters that will define a development. This project functions as an intertwined cross-section cut through the current entanglement of identities, spatial practices, infrastructures, and geological resources.
The exhibition presents a horizon of artifacts—a field that can be observed as a version of what is at work—an image of realias and their links. The different exhibition passages each propose a structured reading of artifacts while at the same time opening up new interpretations. Multiple representations of realias are structured by way of a gradient from subjective, artistic images to operative images.
The horizon of artifacts cannot be observed in its entirety—a special installation interferes and obstructs its field of vision. A piece of lightweight, translucent, levitating 2000 square meter fabric restructures the hull of the Palasport to articulate relations between exhibits, visually fragmenting the space. The fabric plateau has special openings, creating a range of layered cavities. It functions as an optical device, allowing visitors to see the Palasport itself in a way that serves to highlight the ethical dimension of its architectural form. This fabric installation does not interfere with the surfaces or structures of the building’s concrete interior, rather, it is suspended and locked at select points a couple of meters above the ground, and is designed so that it can be lifted to accommodate a girls gymnastics competition in June, as well as other activities run by local Venetians during the summer months.
RB House is a private home located in Cabral, Curitiba, Brazil. Completed in 2012, it was designed by Marcos Bertoldi Arquitetos. RB House by Marcos Bertoldi Arquitetos: “This house corresponds to the ambitions and life project of a young heir and collector. The site, exhaustively searched, is located beside Graciosa Country Club, the most exclusive club with the golf course most centrally located in the city. Its particularities: dimensions, format,..
On June 11th, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, also known as Manifesta, began its 100-day stint in this edition’s host city, Zurich, Switzerland. The festival’s center-piece is a timber raft floating on Lake Zurich, known as the Pavilion of Reflections. The temporary structure was designed and realized by Studio Tom Emerson and a team of thirty students from ETH Zurich. Constructed primarily of timber, Christian Jankowski, curator of Manifesta 11, describes the exhibit “as a floating multi-functional platform with a giant LED screen, a stand for spectators, a swimming pool and a bar.”
The pavilion’s varied program responds to the biennial’s founding desire “to explore the psychological and geographical territory of Europe and to provide a dynamic for cultural exchange throughout the region.” Seeking to represent the social dynamics of the host city, Zurich, the design team took note of the city’s significant bathing culture.
With a history tracing back to Roman settlements, Zurich has the highest density of public swimming areas in the world. But these badis, as they are called locally, also act as social spaces and appear as architectural icons in the city. The Pavilion of Reflections is imagined to be a casual meeting place and a public, open-air swimming area in the daytime. At night it serves as a venue for film screenings, showcasing work from students at Zurich University of the Arts.
A Touch of Chanel is a residential project completed by Daniele Claudio Taddei Architect. It is located in Zurich, Switzerland. A Touch of Chanel by Daniele Claudio Taddei Architect: “This one of the first lofts in the city dating back to the 80’s… it needed to be brought into this century. To keep the open feel of the large space the bathroom was replaced in the form of a glass..
When you’re living in provisional housing, such as during your student days, it makes sense to save money on furniture by purchasing cheap pieces from Ikea or using hand-me-downs. But if you’ve recently purchased the home of your dreams or are giving your long-time abode a makeover, you want quality furniture and fittings that can stand the test of time, and which will give you and your family decades of..
