NASA’s goal is to develop revolutionary technologies to assist in space exploration and they often start the process with funded studies of promising ideas. If these work out, they are developed further, ultimately becoming a reality if they are feasible and beneficial. One very interesting study in their “Early Stage Innovation” program is entitled,… Continue reading Lunar 3D Printing
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Quantum International Invests in 3D House Printing?
An interesting press release came from Quantum International the other day. Quantum appears to be an investment firm specializing in various robotic technology. In their press release they talk of USC Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis’s work in developing large-scale concrete 3D printers capable of 3D printing whole houses. They say: Quantum International Corp. (OTCBB: QUAN)… Continue reading Quantum International Invests in 3D House Printing?
North America’s Largest 3D Print?
Everyone asks how big can you print, but we have a group trying to print something truly massive. JF Brandon of Vancouver, Canada wants your help to print a gigantic version of famed 3D designer Bathsheba Grossman’s “Rygo” for outdoor installation at Gropp’s Gallery of Vancouver. The Rygo is an algorithmic design – generated… Continue reading North America’s Largest 3D Print?
Awesome Possibilities with 3D Printed Concrete
A provocative article on Construction Digital discusses the idea of matching 3D printing with modern construction. As anyone who wanders through big cities these days knows, the design of buildings is increasingly radical and complex. These amazing designs are wonderful to look at and work within, but they are becoming more difficult for engineers and… Continue reading Awesome Possibilities with 3D Printed Concrete
Concrete Printing at Loughborough U
Principle Investigator Dr. Richard Buswell of Loughborough University in the UK leads a project to develop a method of 3D printing concrete building components that’s been ongoing for several years. The components could potentially accommodate pre-made services, such as piping or electrical. The project will also enable the production of building geometries not easily done… Continue reading Concrete Printing at Loughborough U
The Solar Sinter Project
While home 3D printers typical heat/melt plastic to produce objects, Markus Kayser has developed an eco-friendly 3D printer for “desert manufacturing” using only sand as the print material. The Solar Sinter focuses the heat of the sun to a small point using a large, sun-tracking fresnel lens. The focal point is so hot it… Continue reading The Solar Sinter Project
Domes For All
EFFALO’s latest dome-building venture is perhaps their most ambitious: they are attempting to create two critical items, bundling them together as domekit.cc: A software tool that uses parametric design to generate a dome design of any desired size A DIY flexible connector for geodesic dome construction We’ve followed the progress of NYC-based EFFALO… Continue reading Domes For All
3D Scanning by UAV
You may have guessed we’re fascinated with new ways of capturing 3D models for printing, and this week we’ve found a rather unusual method: UAV images. Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne’s Computer Vision Laboratory have developed software to combine thousands of images gathered by UAVs into very usable 3D models. The software,… Continue reading 3D Scanning by UAV
MIT Looks at Printing Buildings
Architect and MIT professor Neri Oxman has been investigating new techniques for applying 3D printing to the science of building construction. We previously wrote of Neri Oxman’s exploits with MaterialEcology, where she leveraged the synergy of computing, ecology, material engineering and design to produce experimental forms. Now she’s investigating the issue of building materials.… Continue reading MIT Looks at Printing Buildings
Design-Worthy Cement Printing
Two years ago we wrote on Contour Crafting’s experiments with building-sized 3D printing, in which they were designing a house-sized 3D printer assembly to extrude concrete into shapes suspiciously resembling buildings. The concept is almost unbelievable, where you could erect most of a house at the push of a button (and a few deliveries of… Continue reading Design-Worthy Cement Printing
Printing the Disney Concert Hall – And Other Buildings
While watching a video of Sweet Onion Creations making a printout of the beautiful Disney Theater in Los Angeles, it became clear that one could find ready-made 3D models of many famous buildings. Sweet Onion Creations recommends using Google Earth to find such buildings, as it’s integrated with Google’s 3D Warehouse. We suspect there… Continue reading Printing the Disney Concert Hall – And Other Buildings
3D Printers are the New Cranes
Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG speculates on a spectacular use of Enrico Dini’s building-sized 3D printer: endless change and renewal as a building could have its own 3D printer constantly printing out new modules, rooms, floors and other components. By adding a tear-down function, the building would both birth and consume itself continuously. From Manaugh: … Continue reading 3D Printers are the New Cranes
3D Printing The Roads
There’s a wonderful concept device produced by designers Hoyoung Lee, Doyoung Kim, and Hongku Kim called the “Road Printer”. Click on the image for larger detail. The idea is to have a solar-powered robot paint those nice lines on our roadways. This should be inexpensive and offer a lot more safety than having live crews… Continue reading 3D Printing The Roads
Wallpaper Magazine Awards “R-O-B” Best Builder Award
Normally we who follow the 3D printing world expect to see a (probably) beige printer-like box containing a steamy build chamber from which excellent 3D objects are extracted. But the R-O-B is a very different kind of additive “printer”. It’s actually a full-scale industrial robot that’s mounted inside a standard shipping container. The shipping container… Continue reading Wallpaper Magazine Awards “R-O-B” Best Builder Award
Planter Bricks
This one seems so obvious to us now after seeing it, but originality always comes from those who are the first to invent something. This time it’s a special brick used to hold vegetation, and you can see various styles in the image above. The bricks were designed by San Fratello Architects, who explain: The… Continue reading Planter Bricks
Scan That Prison!
Every year a “Mock Prison Riot” takes place at a decommissioned prison in West Virginia. Corrections professionals arrive once per year to undertake training activities, but in order to properly prepare for the event, they have to know something about the prison. Unfortunately, no proper blueprints exist, and participants had to manually measure as much… Continue reading Scan That Prison!
D_Shape Tech Prints Buildings
Joris Peels at the Shapeways Blog posts a rather interesting interview with Enrico Dini, who intends on constructing building-sized objects with 3D printing technology. We’ve seen building printers before, but this approach could be more interesting – because it’s actually happening! The image above shows an alien egg-shaped sculpture within a roundabout. Yes, those… Continue reading D_Shape Tech Prints Buildings
Geological 3D Printing
It’s not only geological, it’s also transcontinental! What are we speaking of? It’s an incredible proposal from architectural student Magnus Larsson, whose idea is almost beyond conception. He proposes to use a form of biological 3D printing to create a habitable “green wall” across the entire width of the Sahara desert in order to… Continue reading Geological 3D Printing
Contour Crafting Video
Some months ago we reported on a really large 3D printing operation: Contour Crafting. This company is building a building-sized 3D printer. What for? Printing buildings, of course! The device (a large sized industrial machine) is essentially a gigantic 3D printer that uses concrete as its print media. By printing the digitized model of a… Continue reading Contour Crafting Video
Parametric House!
Dorota Kabala and Verena Vogler of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia have designed an amazing and stunningly beautiful system for an adaptable house. It can: “adapt to its environment, to its users or to any other parameter” The idea is to produce a modular system based on a 3D matrix of spaces… Continue reading Parametric House!
Another Building-Sized Fab
Two posts on gigantor-sized fabs this week! The Information Sciences Institute’s Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis’s Contour Crafting Technology enables fabbing on a building-sized scale. Apparently the Doctor plans on releasing the USD$1.5M machine very soon, and we will soon see if this type of “personal” manufacturing will work. Be sure to check out the videos, especially… Continue reading Another Building-Sized Fab
Printing an Entire Building!
It’s not exactly desktop fabbing, but it is definitely interesting. French architectural firm R&Sie plans on building an “Ice Museum” by fabbing the entire building from pre-made wood media. Unlike typical 3D printers that create objects by gradually adding material, the technique to be used for the Ice Museum will be subtractive – sheets of… Continue reading Printing an Entire Building!