External Reference creates 3D-printed organic displays for La Manso store
CategoriesInterior Design

External Reference creates 3D-printed organic displays for La Manso store

3D-printed shelving structures informed by Catalan-modernist buildings were used for shelving in this store designed by External Reference for a Spanish jewellery brand.

Experimental jewellery designer Adriana Manso asked Carmelo Zappulla’s studio External Reference to develop a suitably unusual interior concept for her first physical store in the city.

Exterior of La Manso store in BarcelonaExterior of La Manso store in Barcelona
The store is in the Eixample district

The project involved designing a window display and shelving for the 25-square-metre store, which is located in Barcelona’s Eixample district just a few metres from the house where Manso was born.

Manso is known for her playful pieces made from recycled plastic, which she wanted to display in a space that evokes the luxury feel of an haute-couture boutique.

Interior of La MansoInterior of La Manso
It features a 3D-printed interior informed by architecture

External Reference sought to combine the contemporary plasticity of La Manso’s jewellery with motifs influenced by Barcelona’s early 20th-century architecture, including the building in which the store is situated.

“Our design concept revolved around bringing the exterior facade inside, creating a melted and fluid background that would serve as an artistic canvas for showcasing the jewellery,” Zappulla told Dezeen.

“By blending the expressive elements of Catalan modernism with the organic forms inspired by La Manso design, our goal was to craft a visually captivating environment that elevates the overall shopping experience.”

Floral details in Barcelona storeFloral details in Barcelona store
External Reference created wavy shapes for the space

The designers selected fragments from the decorative facade and abstracted them using a process involving hand drawing and computational design techniques.

In particular, floral details from the elaborate canopy at the store’s entrance were reinterpreted as large rosettes incorporating futuristic glitches and bas-reliefs.

The organic shapes form shelving units that range in height from 90 centimetres to 1.7 metres. Jewellery and accessories are displayed on the shelves, as well as on a small table at the centre of the space.

The furniture is made from biodegradable cellulose and was produced with technical support from specialist 3D-printing workshop La Máquina.

Zappulla and his team refined the digital models to optimise them for printing. This involved splitting them into manageable parts that could be processed by the machine’s robotic arm.

Barcelona jewellery storeBarcelona jewellery store
The aim was to provide a neutral backdrop

All of the printed elements are finished in a muted off-white shade that matches the rest of the interior and provides a neutral backdrop for displaying the jewellery.

Large, mirrored surfaces help to make the interior feel more expansive, while spotlights provide targeted illumination for highlighting the collection.

In addition to the main furniture, the designers also developed a window display and 3D-printed signage that extend the store’s conceptual design out into the street.

Shelving at La MansoShelving at La Manso
The La Manso interior has a muted colour palette

Large-scale 3D-printing technology offers designers possibilities to create unique elements for branded interiors, which makes it increasingly popular for retail spaces.

Spanish design studio Nagami has created a store for sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf featuring transparent 3D-printed displays that recall melting glaciers, while Dutch architecture practice Studio RAP used the technology to produce a wave-like tiled facade for an Amsterdam boutique.

The photography is courtesy of External Reference.

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3D-printed skincare supplements – Springwise
CategoriesSustainable News

3D-printed skincare supplements – Springwise

Spotted: As customers become increasingly aware and invested in health and wellness, demand for nutricosmetics – supplements and foods with beauty benefits – is projected to boom. Indeed, Straits Research estimates the global industry will be worth almost $16 million (around €14.5 million) by 2030.  

Nourished, a UK company that creates personalised 3D-printed chewable vitamins, including chewable mouthwash alternatives made in collaboration with Colgate, is joining the growing nutricosmetics industry with new skincare supplements that were unveiled earlier this year. 

The vitamins, called SkinStacks, were developed in partnership with skincare brand Neutrogena. Using a smartphone, customers scan their face, and the images are then analysed by Neutrogena’s AI-powered Skin360 software, which assesses more than 2,000 unique skin attributes. Users are then asked to consider what outcomes they’d like to see – more radiant skin or less fine lines, for example – and a recommended combination of nutrients is given. Nourished then 3D prints customised gummies that are based on these recommendations.  This stands in contrast with other vitamin brands, who tend to use basic quizzes to guide the ingredients used in personalised supplements. 

Because the vitamins are made-to-order, Nourished avoids wasteful overproduction that can leave excess products to expire on shop shelves. And crucially, SkinStacks and other Nourished products combine multiple science-backed ingredients in one supplement. Not only does this save customers unnecessary time and money that would be spent sourcing several different pills – it also cuts out the large volume of plastic packaging that is thrown away when customers buy multiple tubs of vitamin pills. Skinstacks and other Nourished products, in comparison, come in completely recyclable plastic-free packaging, including home-compostable wrappers.  

There’s a plethora of innovators out there looking to make the beauty industry more sustainable. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted cosmetics made from unsold fruit and a plant-based beauty brand.

Written By: Matilda Cox

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A modular system of 3D-printed bricks for restoring reefs
CategoriesSustainable News

A modular system of 3D-printed bricks for restoring reefs

Spotted: Less than 45 per cent of original global reefs remain, and scientists predict that by 2070, they could disappear altogether. Reefs are declining at twice the pace of rainforests and stopping the damage requires swift, focused actions at sites around the world. One company, Swiss-based Rrreefs, creates bespoke coral reef replacements that provide multiple environmental benefits. The company’s goal is to revive one per cent of coastal coral reefs by 2033. 

Video source Rrreefs

Using pure clay, the company 3D prints reef bricks that are customised to best suit the nearest shoreline and local environment. By understanding water flows and marine topography, the company builds structures that provide microenvironments for thousands of animals and plants to thrive. Protecting shores from erosion improves the growing environments for underwater forests of mangroves and seagrass, both of which are crucial to the capture of carbon dioxide. And a single cubic metre of the reef blocks provides a new home to more than 20,000 tiny animals, 20 corals, 60 fish, and more.  

The surface of the bricks is designed specifically to support a variety of coral larvae contributing to the genetic diversity of the new reef. The natural clay material contains no artificial ingredients or chemicals, making it a healthy choice that contributes no new pollution to the world’s oceans.  

Using 3D printing allows for modular production and complete customisation of height, width, and length of the overall reef structure. The process also allows for local manufacturing, which further reduces the carbon footprint of each reef.  

The innovations seeking to help stop the irreversible destruction of the world’s coral reefs are many and varied. Recent ones spotted by Springwise include a global cat food brand supporting new reefs and a company making leather out of an invasive fish that threatens reef health.

Written By: Keely Khoury

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Fully recyclable, custom 3D-printed footwear
CategoriesSustainable News

Fully recyclable, custom 3D-printed footwear

Spotted: According to Vivobarefoot, a staggering 22 billion pairs of shoes go to landfill every year. Working to make the shoe industry more sustainable is Zellerfeld, with shoes that are “printed, not made.”  

Customers use an app to scan their feet, and the scan is then used to 3D print their chosen style of shoe. Made from washable, breathable mesh, the shoes use no glue and have no seams, eliminating the many weak points at which traditional designs generally break. Because the shoes use no rubber, leather, or textiles, they are 100 per cent recyclable. They are also made from recycled materials that are turned into thermoplastics. By not adding any toxins to the material, the entire production process is made much safer and healthier than typical manufacturing.  

There are currently 15 models available, ranging from the more formal uniform style to high-tops, mules, and several other intricately detailed shapes. The company also offers an array of colours. Customers are encouraged to return their old pairs to the company for a fully circular product lifecycle. As well as recycling the old pair, shoppers can choose to upgrade to the latest version of the style, much the same way we periodically trade in our used smartphones for the newest model.  

The company is currently working to increase production from eight printers to 200, before expanding into a North American factory capable of producing 5,000 pairs a day. It currently takes 40 hours to produce a pair of shoes, something the team is working on reducing so a file can be transformed into product almost immediately with next day shipping.  

From baby shoes that dissolve in water to insoles that prevent workplace injuries, Springwise has spotted many ways that shoe tech is evolving.

Written By: Keely Khoury

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BVN and UTS rethink air conditioning with 3D-printed “breathing” system
CategoriesSustainable News

BVN and UTS rethink air conditioning with 3D-printed “breathing” system

Australian architecture practice BVN and the University of Technology Sydney have created a low-carbon, 3D-printed system that “breathes” like frog skin.

Named Systems Reef 2, the invention was made of recycled plastic 3D printed into a computationally optimised design that BVN said has 90 per cent less embodied carbon than a standard air-conditioning system.

The system also uses less operational energy because the air flows more easily around the organically shaped, branching tubing, with no corners to get stuck in.

Photo of translucent plastic tubes branching underneath a concrete slab ceiling
Systems Reef 2 is a reimagined system of air conditioning with an optimised design

The invention was designed to tackle the many deficiencies the architecture studio identified with air conditioning, a technology that BVN co-CEO Ninotschka Titchkosky describes as not having changed much since its invention in the early 1900s and having been “largely designed for manufacturing processes as opposed to human comfort”.

Air conditioning systems are typically made from steel sheets, which the BVN and UTS team’s analysis showed results in high embodied carbon and the use of much more material than is necessary. The systems also waste energy because they are structurally inefficient and difficult to change after installation.

“At the moment, the systems that we have, they’re really inflexible, they’re not particularly great for human comfort, they’re really expensive to change and they really limit the way we want to occupy buildings now in the 21st century, which is much more adaptive and agile,” Titchkosky told Dezeen.

Photo of a 3D printer nozzle extruding clear plastic in a layers to form a tube
The system is made of recycled plastic that is 3D printed into tubes

A key difference with Systems Reef 2 is that it’s “designed for air”, removing one of the key sources of inefficiency in existing systems: right angles.

These systems’ orthogonal designs, while suiting sheet metal construction, lead to air becoming stuck in corners and needing more energy to force it out.

“The most shocking thing we realised is that existing air conditioning systems basically aren’t aerodynamic and don’t even go through a computational fluid dynamic modelling process most of the time,” said Titchkosky.

Photo of two people holding up a length of clear plastic tubing as if to install it on a ceiling
The tubing is meant as a replacement for steel air conditioning ducting

Systems Reef 2 instead has an irregular, branching form with no sharp corners, and with a tapering shape so that extra energy isn’t needed to push cool air out of the furthest reaches of the tubing.

With the friction removed from the system, it is also smaller and slimmer, using overall less material.

To increase the comfort level for people sitting under the contraption, the team drew inspiration from frogs, which breath through their skin. Instead of using ducts, they covered Systems Reef 2 in tiny pores that effectively mist cool air into the space below.

Close-up photo of translucent plastic tubing forming the Systems Reef 2 air conditioning system
The tubing is said to have a beautiful, crystalline appearance

For a low-carbon material solution that is suitable for 3D printing, they chose recycled plastic, on the basis that not only is plastic waste plentiful but it can be easily recycled again and again, making Systems Reef 2 a circular design.

BVN used waste plastic that was obtained from hospitals, crushed into pellets and fed into the 3D-printing robot.

The material gives Systems Reef 2 a translucent, crystalline appearance that BVN says is “very beautiful”. There is also the possibility to print it in colours or illuminate it to personalise an office environment.

Close-up photo of the Systems Reef 2 tubing showing the texture of fine coils of plastic filament
The 3D-printing process gives BVN and UTS the ability to precisely control the shape of the ducting

The team’s final goal for Systems Reef 2 was that it be adaptable, which they achieved with a click-and-connect system with standardised fixings and seals to facilitate easy changes.

Because it is so simple and light, BVN estimates that it cuts down on onsite labour by more than 50 per cent — a significant draw given worldwide labour shortages — while being friendlier to the health of the installers.

The team uses generative design to tailor Systems Reef 2 to specific spaces, with an algorithm generating hundreds of iterations based on a given floor plan and the final design being chosen and tweaked through manual review.

BVN installed a prototype Systems Reef 2 at its own studio in Sydney, replacing the existing tertiary ducting and diffusers. It is now exploring more demonstration projects while getting the design ready to launch as a commercial product.

Photo of BVN's Sydney studio with Systems Reef 2 air conditioning system installed
BVN has installed a prototype of Systems Reef 2 at its studio in Sydney

It particularly sees the product as having great potential for retrofitting ageing buildings and says it could theoretically be installed in any office with an open-plan layout.

BVN and UTS were awarded Best Green Building Material/Product at the Australian Sustainability Awards 2022 for the design.

It is the second Systems Reef project BVN has undertaken, with each dedicated to some aspect of building services.

Photo of 3D-printing robot extruding material in coils
The team is now aiming to bring their invention to the market

“The reason it’s called Systems Reef is because we were starting to think about all the layers that exist in the ceiling as sort of like a reef — this kind of multi-layered environment where everything plays a part,” said Titchkosky.

“We wanted to move away from the idea of a services infrastructure to a services system that was more holistically interwoven and a lot smarter.”

BVN is an Australian architecture practice with offices in Sydney, Brisbane, London and New York. Its current projects include the Sydney headquarters for technology company Atlassian, which will be one of the world’s tallest hybrid timber towers at 40 storeys in height.

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Construction Is Underway on the First Multi-Story 3D-Printed House in the United States
CategoriesArchitecture

Construction Is Underway on the First Multi-Story 3D-Printed House in the United States

 How can architecture be a force for good in our ever-changing world? During Future Fest, we’re pose this question to some of the world’s best architects. We’re hosting daily virtual talks from September 12th to 30th, which are 100% free to attend.  Check out the full schedule!

Construction has began on the first two-story 3D-printed structure in the United States. Located in Houston, the 4000-square-foot home will soon become one of the world’s largest and tallest printed buildings, showcasing the rapidly expanding possibilities of 3D printing technology and mass customization in the field of architecture.

The project caps off a two-year collaborative effort between HANNAH, an experimental design firm and research studio based in Ithaca, PERI 3D, an international 3D construction printing provider, and CIVE, the leading engineering service and general contractor in Houston. The design uses a hybridized construction method that will combine printed concrete modules with wood framing, making it one of the first 3D printed to use wood and concrete in an integrative manner.

Spearheaded by Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic, assistant professors at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University and principals at HANNAH, the project began with the objective of developing a 3D printed construction system that could be scalable and applicable for multi-family housing the future — not an easy feat given the additional structural challenges when printing beyond a single story. As such, Lok explains that it was necessary to develop the design in relationship to the material and construction process.

“Every aspect of the project, from the overall spatial configuration to the scale architectural detailing — such as how we create shelving and openings — was informed by the unique fabrication logic of 3D printed concrete,” Lok said. “With the structural engineering expertise from CIVE and the extensive printing knowledge of PERI 3D, we were able to develop an approach to 3D print the second story.”

Once completed, the project will alternate between concrete modules and glazed wooden frames; rendering by HANNAH

Though a handful of 3D printed multi-story projects have been built abroad, mostly in Europe, HANNAH’s design stands out for its adaptation to the American construction culture of wood framing. Whereas the use of precast concrete components for floors and ceilings has long been a European norm, wood framing as a construction technique is much more prevalent in North America, though their integration in 3D printed construction has so far been limited. In response to this, HANNAH sought to create a design that would be more easily applicable to the U.S. market. The final result is a house that alternates between wood and printed concrete volumes, a strategy that combines the best of both materials, the pair explain.

“What is unique about our modular design is that the printed concrete and the wood framing work hand in hand and we use them where they’re best performing,” Zivkovic said. “It’s not about printing concrete everywhere because you could, but where it makes sense.”

Photos by Anthony Vu via HANNAH

In part, the project is showcasing the usefulness of 3D printing for the future construction industry. The modular 3D printer — a COBOD BOD2 gantry printer — takes only one day to set up, and the printing can run 24/7. Although a handful of people are still needed on the worksite to supervise the machine, the printer does virtually all the heavy lifting.

Achieving the right printing mixture for the concrete was one challenge that necessitated the help of other industry partners. The PERI 3D printing team worked with engineers at Quikrete, a manufacturer of packed concrete, to achieve improved printability for their new generation of printing mixture at the specific site in Houston. The team conducted test prints on site earlier this summer to dial in the various printing parameters.

Designing the 3D printed house was another demanding part of the project, since unlike (human) contractors, 3D printing machines don’t read architectural plans but lines of code. The architects at HANNAH used special software to manually design the path that the printing machine uses to pour one continuous line of concrete for the new house; a meticulous process known as the ‘toolpath’ that equally comprises structural and aesthetic considerations, leaving no room for error.

Far from letting this complex process limit their design, HANNAH used the printing toolpath as an opportunity to push the design possibilities of 3D-printed structures. The repeated use of incremental cantilevers within the concrete modules serves as an architectural motif that is both ornamental and functional. Paired with the distinct horizontal layers of printed concrete, HANNAH creates a bold stylistic statement about 3D printed architecture; hinting at the opportunities of new design language for printed projects.

More broadly, the project is offering a glimpse of a future where 3D printing could become a major force in the construction industry; where automated construction could address a variety of pressing issues, from alleviating workforce shortages to constructing affordable housing. Still, much work lies ahead. For this project, the team hope to use the project as a learning opportunity to streamline the construction process, as well as to optimize material usage and cost for 3D printing buildings — all necessary steps that need to be undertaken if 3D printed architecture is to attain newer heights.

 How can architecture be a force for good in our ever-changing world? During Future Fest, we’re pose this question to some of the world’s best architects. We’re hosting daily virtual talks from September 12th to 30th, which are 100% free to attend.  Check out the full schedule!

 

Reference

3D-printed aquatic reefs made from cremated remains
CategoriesSustainable News

3D-printed aquatic reefs made from cremated remains

Spotted: What if, instead of scattering your loved ones’ ashes into the ocean, you could give them a more permanent resting place that would also help regenerate marine ecosystems?

This is the idea behind Resting Reefs, a system of 3D-printed artificial reefs designed to be made from cremated remains. The project was developed by Louise Lenborg Skajem and Aura Elena Murillo Pérez, graduates of the Royal College of Art in London.

The Reefs are designed to provide a habitat for marine life, helping to restore biodiversity in areas where natural coral reefs have been destroyed. According to the developers, each reef can support up to 16 different species of marine life.

To test their design, the team used animal bones and pulverized oyster shells—in place of human remains—to make a composite that may be 3D-printed into stippled mounds. The mounds resemble the form and natural growth pattern of stromatolite reefs, which are made up of microorganisms like blue-green algae.

Forming cremated ashes into solid reef mounds also provides surviving family members with a permanent place to pay respects to their loved ones.

The reefs are intended to be placed in shallow waters near the shore – where they can provide a home for small fish and other creatures. Eventually, the developers hope to create a version of the reef that can be used in deeper waters.

The Reefs are designed to provide a habitat for marine life, helping to restore biodiversity in areas where natural coral reefs have been destroyed. According to the developers, each reef can support up to 16 different species of marine life.

Other reef-related innovations spotted by Springwise include underwater ‘coral cities’ that revive marine life, ‘coral IVF’ used to re-populate damaged reefs, and bacteria that protect reefs from heat stress.

Written By: Katrina Lane

Website: restingreef.co.uk

Contact: restingreef.co.uk/contact

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