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3D Printing: The Latest Architecture and News

Neri Oxman’s “Mushtari” Is a 3D Printed Wearable That Makes Products from Sunlight

Designer and architect Neri Oxman, working with the Mediated Matter group, has unveiled “Mushtari”: a 3D-printed wearable that can convert sunlight into usable products. Joining the “Wanderer” collection, Mushtari was designed as a relationship between the most primitive and most sophisticated life forms. The wearable contains 58 meters of internal fluid channels and functions as a microbial factory, using synthetic biology to convert sunlight into items for the wearer.

Dubai to Host World's First 3D Printed Building

The United Arab Emirates National Innovation Committee has unveiled plans to build the world's first 3D printed structure with a massive, 20-foot-tall 3D printer. Though many structures have utilized 3D printing, none have been entirely built by using the technology. Everything - the building's structure, interior finishes, and furniture - will be 3D printed in sections and then assembled on site, according to a report by 3DPrint. The 2,000-square-foot building will then be used to house the Museum of the Future headquarters in Dubai.

MX3D to 3D Print a Bridge in Mid-Air over Amsterdam Canal

Amsterdam already has over 1,200 bridges throughout its canals, with some dating as far back as the 17th century, but the city is about to add one more in correspondence with its growing 3D printing industry. Dutch start-up MX3D has partnered with Joris Laarman Lab, Heijmans, Autodesk, and several other supporters, in a collaboration that will create an intricate steel pedestrian bridge made by 3D printers.

Toronto’s Design Exchange Unveils Its Latest Exhibition: “3DXL”

Despite being at the forefront of digital fabrication technology, 3D printing is still shrouded in mystery, something which the Design Exchange (DX) hopes to change with its most recent exhibition, “3DXL” in Toronto. Curated by the director of DX, Sara Nickleson, 3DXL brings together 3D printing projects from across fields, including work from medicine, design and architecture. As the name suggests, the exhibit presents 3D printing on a scale not normally observed by the public. In particular, the exhibit addresses the role 3D printing will play in the future of architecture, and how it may begin to replace more traditional architectural construction.

Video: Housing Through the Centuries

From the Cobb house to the world's first 3D printed mansion, this short animated film illustrates the history of housing from 25,000 BC to now. Published on The Atlantic, the film was authored by Jackie Lay.

The Transnational Urbanism of Paris: An Interview With Assistant Mayor Jean-Louis Missika

In the past century, the rise of globalism, of relatively cheap international transport, and above all, of the "world city" has fundamentally changed the way we think about citizenship and the nation state. To accommodate that change, we have also had to invent a new kind of "Transnational Urbanism": at the more esoteric end of this scale are ideas such as JG Ballard's "city of the 21st century," a geographically scattered "city" made up of the interconnected no-man's-land of international airports, which was recently exemplified by Eduardo Cassina and Liva Dudareva's hypothetical proposal for Moscow's Central Business district. At the other end of the scale are pragmatic choices that must be made by cities such as New York, London and Hong Kong that truly affect the lives of people not just living in the city, but around the world.

To probe this topic, MONU Magazine has dedicated their latest issue to the topic of Transnational Urbanism. In this extract from the magazine, MONU's Bernd Upmeyer and Beatriz Ramo interview French sociologist and Assistant Mayor of Paris Jean-Louis Missika to discover how the city is positioning itself as a 21st century global city, and how it is absorbing and adopting change in everything from the creative class to smart cities and 3D Printing.

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NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge Takes Designers into Deep Space

NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Institute (America Makes) have launched the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, an inaugural design competition offering $2.25 million in prizes. Part of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, the competition challenges entrants to design and build a 3D printed habitat for deep space exploration. "The future possibilities for 3D printing are inspiring, and the technology is extremely important to deep space exploration," said Sam Ortega, Centennial Challenges program manager. "This challenge definitely raises the bar from what we are currently capable of, and we are excited to see what the maker community does with it."

You Can Now 3D Print With Sketchfab

ArchDaily by ArchDaily on Sketchfab

In response to one of their most frequent user requests, browser-based 3D model platform Sketchfab has now partnered with Hubs, the world's largest 3D printer network, to introduce a 3D print ordering feature that works directly from its viewing window. With a globally-distributed network of 15,000 print hubs in their network (250 of which support full-color printing), Sketchfab CEO Alban Denoyel says that 3D Hubs is the "closest to achieving this vision" of locally-based manufacture that bypasses transport costs - which he believes is "one of the most important promises of 3D printing."

Zaha Hadid's 3D Printed Flame Heels Among 5 Designs to Re-Invent the Shoe

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FLAMES / Zaha Hadid. Image © United Nude

Zaha Hadid, Fernando Romero, and Ben Van Berkel are making headlines alongside two renowned artists for their 3D printed reinventions of the high heel. A collaborative vision spearheaded by United Nude and 3D Systems, the highly anticipated project was unveiled yesterday at the "Re-Inventing Shoes" exhibition at Milan Design Week.

Each sculptural heel was 3D printed using SelectiveLaser Sintering in a hard Nylon and all-new soft Rubber material, making a "fully functioning" shoe. Only up to 50 pairs of each will be sold. See them all, after the break. 

Help Fund Ittyblox's 3-D Printed Miniature Cities

Ever wanted your very own Flatiron Building to sit on your mantelpiece? What about a Guggenheim for your desk, or a block of London apartments for your side table? Ittyblox, a Dutch company based in Den Bosch, is determined to make this dream a reality, 3D printing 1:1000 models of iconic buildings and city blocks. The models are printed in full color and designed to slot into modular baseplates, which can be arranged into complete cityscape dioramas. Buildings currently in production hail from London, Miami, New York, and Chicago, with a new building added each week.

Construction of Sagrada Família Accelerated by 3-D Printing Technology

As reported by the BBC, construction of Antoni Gaudí's already 133-year-old Sagrada Família in Barcelona is now being accelerated by one of the most modern technologies around: 3-D printing. As a matter of fact, the construction process in Barcelona has been utilizing 3-D printing for 14 years, introducing the technology in 2001 as a way of speeding up the prototyping of the building's many complex components.

The process uses powder-based stereolithographic 3-D printers, which build prototypes layer-by-layer, resulting in a material similar to plaster. This is important to the workshop at the Sagrada Família, because it allows craftsmen to easily alter the prototypes by hand, to meet the demanding specifications of the building.

Emerging Objects Creates "Bloom" Pavilion from 3D Printed Cement

Following on from other experiments in 3-D Printing including a proposal for a house printed from salt and an earthquake resistant column inspired by Incan masonry, the California-based Emerging Objects team has created Bloom, a pavilion constructed from 840 unique blocks 3-D printed from portland cement.

The 9-foot (2.7 meter) tall pavilion is cruciform in plan, morphing as it rises to become the same cruciform shape twisted by 45 degrees. On the facade of the pavilion, perforations are mapped onto the cement blocks to create a design inspired by traditional Thai flower patterns.

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Carbon3D Can Grow Seamless Structures 100x Faster than 3D Printing

3-D printing is slow; it’s really just “2-D printing over and over,” says chemist and material scientist Joseph DeSimone. Addressing the three main issues that has prevented 3-D printing from being a mainstream manufacturing process - time, structural and material limits - DeSimone has unveiled Carbon3D at TED2015. A process inspired by the T-1000 from Terminator 2, Carbon3D uses light and oxygen to continuously (and quickly) grow parts out of a vat of liquid resin using a new technology known as CLIP - Continuous Liquid Interface Production. While the process’ potential has been immediately correlated with the medical industry, one can only imagine its effect on manufacturing as a whole.

Synthesis Design + Architecture Utilizes Gradient 3-D Printing in "Durotaxis Chair"

Los Angeles-based practice Synthesis Design + Architecture has created a 3-D printed chair which uses the latest gradient 3-D printing technology to apply different material properties to different parts of the chair. Originally asked by leading 3-D printing company Stratasys to design a piece that would not be possible without utilizing 3-D printing, Synthesis Design + Architecture chose to go one better, designing a chair that would not be possible without the Stratasys Objet 500 Connex3, which is capable of combining a range of material properties into a single print run.

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Dubai’s Museum of the Future to be Partially 3-D Printed

“See the future, create the future,” this is the motto of Dubai’s newly unveiled “Museum of the Future.” The metallic oblong-structure, planned for a corner lot in Dubai’s central financial district next to the Emirates Towers on Sheikh Zayed Road, is said to become “an incubator for ideas and real designs, a driver for innovation and a global destination for inventors and entrepreneurs.”

"The world is entering a new era of accelerated knowledge and great technological revolutions,” tweeted United Arab Emirates prime minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. "We aim to lead in that era, not to follow and lag behind. The Museum of the Future is the first step of many to come, marking the beginning of great achievements."

Holograms, robotics and 3-D printing will play a crucial role in the structure’s realization. Learn more and watch a video fly-through the building after the break.

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Augmented Reality App “Lego X” Simplifies 3D Modeling

Imagine forgoing time-intensive 3D modeling programs to instead create 3D printable models by playfully stacking sensored LEGO bricks. This reality isn’t far from fruition, as the London-based studio Gravity has released plans for an augmented reality app that uses location-mapping and gyroscopic sensors to generate digital (and scalable) models of your creation in realtime. The program, “Lego X” uses an algorithm to intuitively smooth out edges and join corners, allowing for easy modifying and seamless 3D printing.

See the program in action, after the break. 

Chinese Company Constructs the World's Tallest 3D Printed Building

Once again, Chinese company WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co has expanded the capabilities of 3D printing. After constructing ten houses in under twenty-four hours last year, now they are back with both the world's tallest 3D printed building - a five-story apartment block - and a 1,100 square meter mansion with internal and external decoration to boot.

On display in Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu province, the two buildings represent new frontiers for 3D printed construction, finally demonstrating its potential for creating more traditional building typologies and therefore its suitability for use by mainstream developers.

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Microsoft Reveals Holographic Features for Windows 10

At their Windows 10 Event today in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft unveiled features for its forthcoming operating system that it feels could revolutionize computing, particularly for people who want to design, make or fix something in the real world: holographics. The company revealed both the Windows Holographic features that will be built into Windows 10 and HoloLens, an in-house designed headset that will be capable of placing holographic elements into the world around you - think of it as a combination of the flat augmented reality overlay in Google Glass, and the immersive yet virtual-only presentation of Oculus Rift.

The video trailer above shows the far-reaching implications for a variety of designers, both professional and amateur (including a nod to the architecture profession at the 50-second mark), with TechCrunch explaining how the technology "offers a way for architects to survey and present their designs alongside clients even when separated by great distances."