Look at your room, now back to this 3D printed one, now back at your room, now back to this. Sadly, your room isn’t even close to the 3D printed work of art seen below.
Forget everything you knew about architecture and room design! Any room you might have seen till now is miles away from the intricate design of the Digital Grotesque project that was brought to life by Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger. The former is famous for the elaborate architecture that he makes with the use of algorithms and computation. One of the most shocking details about this fully enclosed architectural folly is that it features 80 million unique surfaces. If this does not distinguish it from any other room in the world, I don’t know what will.
Regardless of how mind-bending this whole thing looks to most people. the two designers insist that the project respects a minimal, reduced protocol: “Inspired by the natural process of cell division, we develop an algorithm that iteratively divides and transforms the initial geometry of a simple cube. Despite simple rules, a complex world of forms arises at multiple scales.”
A 1:3 scale prototype of the room was showcased by them at the Materializing Exhibition in Tokyo and Basel’s Swiss Art Awards, probably to warn the entire world that they were working on something big.
In a 2011 interview for Co.Design, Hansmeyer stated: “Every 3-D printing facility we spoke to turned us down,” as the cardboard and Styrofoam columns he wanted to print back then were way too complex for 3D printers. And by that I mean 16 million polygonal faces. Luckily, this crazy computational architect found a printer capable of turning his surrealistic shapes into something palpable.
According to the two designers, the world’s first 3D printed room will mix in an unique manner “ornament and structure.”
On July 22, people will witness the unveiling of the world’s first 3D printed room. I’m sure that the 3D printed houses that construction companies will build in the not-so-distant-future will not be as complex, but that’s OK. All in all, it’s great to see that 3D printing is used for creating works of art, among many other things. Now we can all dream of that 3D printed moon base or, why not, even a 3D printed base on Mars.
If you liked this post, please check the personal portraits made with the MakerBot 3D printer and the awesome, yet terrifying 3D printed gun.
