2024

Digital Fabrication of Biologically Cemented Spatial Structures

The environmental impact of the construction industry demands sustainable alternatives to traditional concrete production. Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) offers an alternative solution where microbes can produce biocemented structures at a low cost and ambient temperature. This study integrates MICP with nonplanar granular 3D printing methods, overcoming casting limitations such as geometrical constraints and uneven […]

2023

Prōtóplasto – an ultra lightweight plastic media installation

Prōtóplasto is an ultralight media installation exhibited at the innovation hub “Futurama” in Aargau, Switzerland. It is created with a novel constructive system pairing two new technologies: an innovative 3D printing method for polymers with very high build up rates which are similar to concrete extrusion, and 3D printed connections whose bespoke geometry enables support-free […]

2023

Fluid Forms

‘Fluid Forms’ is a  2.0-meter tall lightweight shell fabricated using non-planar robotic 3D printing. Exploring the applications of robotic fabrication, this project showcases an innovative robotic additive manufacturing method that enables the printing of doubly curved thin shells more efficiently. Technical innovation lies at the heart of this project, unveiling a new method for 3D […]

2023

Airlements

This research investigates using foam 3D-printing of cement-free mineral foams from recycled waste for monolithic, lightweight, and insulated wall construction. It aims to reduce the amount of material, labor, and costs required for bespoke building parts by leveraging moldless fabrication through large-scale robotic 3D-printing. Using porous materials with different densities provides insulation and strength where […]

2022

Cold Production: Programming Concrete Openwork with Ice Formwork

Cold Production explores a zero-waste fabrication method for concrete that uses digitally sculpted ice as a moulding material. The project explored spatial concrete lattices and their stacking principles. Ice units were press-formed using 3D-printed multiparty moulds. The rapid and waste-free production is done in the Sub-Zero lab at -10C. The concrete was poured, cured, and […]

2021

Beyond Transparency: Robotically Enhanced Glass Architecture

Glass has played a key role in architecture not only bringing light into buildings and enabling views to the world around us. Throughout history, properties of color and form in glass, brought a transformative, sublime power to the material and to spaces. In the 20th century, the mass fabrication of glass enabled its use as a […]

2020

Fast Complexity

Concrete is responsible for 8% of our global carbon footprint. Now more than ever, it is imperative to use concrete more efficiently. With optimisation algorithms, we can design complex buildings that use less than half the amount of concrete. Still, we are limited by the available fabrication technologies: the conventional formwork solutions only allow us […]

2017

Digital Metal:  Shaping Liquid Pavilion

Digital Metal structure is a 4 meter wide, 6 meter long and 5 meter high space frame that consists of over 200 customised joints and over 400 meters of off-shelf aluminum-profiles. It was set as an experimental project to explore the potential of   3d printing  for producing sand mold to be used for casting metal […]