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Super-starchitect Lord Norman Foster and his friends at the European Space Agency stunned the world last year with a plan to build a lunar base by 3D-printing it with moon dust. But what happens when you try something like that on Earth? How is 3D printing changing the way we build cities?
I got the chance to ask Foster just that question at the Center for Architecture in New York City last night.
— gizmodo.com
Previously on Archinect: Foster + Partners works with European Space Agency to 3D print structures on the moon View full entry
Some writers and people who talk about 3D printing get over-enthused. Most of the stuff they talk about will happen someday—eventually. But there’s the here-and-now and the near-term future, where a lot of that stuff is definitely hype and won’t happen. I’m very steeped into what can happen in the relatively near term. So I just tend not to pay too much attention when the hype gets too obscure. — qz.com
...the little structures will remind you of every last thing: foreclosed houses...the Olympic stadium in Beijing...the Colosseum, the crumbling ruins next door to the Colosseum. Each building maps a path through Tihanyi's mind, and yours. You visit every teeny room...climb every ladder...Then you return to your big self, looking down on layers of sheen and pale color emanating from the surfaces, as if layers of translucent skin have been laid on top of flesh. How could you not love these? — Jen Graves writing for The Stranger
Art critic Jen Graves (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize ultimately won by Inga Saffron) reviews the tiny building-like constructions made by artist Timea Tihanyis. But while architecture aficionados will find these little structures initially reminiscent of 3D printed models, their laborious... View full entry
Chinese companies have been known to build major real-estate projects very quickly. Now, one company is taking it to a new extreme.
Suzhou-based construction-materials firm Winsun New Materials says it has built 10 200-square-meter homes using a gigantic 3-D printer that it spent 20 million yuan ($3.2 million) and 12 years developing.
— blogs.wsj.com
The size of the [3-D printing] market ... is expected to grow to $3.8 billion this year and soar to $16.2 billion globally by 2018. [...]
"This is a market with enormous growth potential now that the main barriers to up-take are being addressed," Shepherd said. "As it matures, there is clear and substantial potential across numerous sectors, such as engineering and architecture, aerospace and defense, and medical ... for 3-D printing to have a dramatic impact within five years."
— The Los Angeles Times
A Shanghai building company has erected a small village of pitched-roof, 3-D printed structures—in about a day. WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co is behind the series of humble buildings, which each cost less than $5,000 each. The homes were created through the use of a 490- by 33- by 20-foot 3-D printer that fabricates the basic components required for assembly. — blog.archpaper.com
Zero waste, lower transport costs and recyclable materials – is 3D-printing the future of housebuilding? Dutch architects are putting the process to the test for the first time in Amsterdam — theguardian.com
For the latest edition in The Deans List interview series, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg spoke with Sarah Whiting, Dean of the Rice School of Architecture in Houston, Texas. Therein, Dean Whiting discussed her belief that one of "the biggest challenge faced by any architect today is how not to... View full entry
Most of us have gotten used to smartphones replacing long-established devices such as cameras and music players.
Soon, however, they might be taking over the duties of something that is itself an emerging technology – the 3D scanner.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have created an app that allows an ordinary smartphone to capture and display three-dimensional models of real-world objects, for subsequent finessing or even 3D printing.
— Gizmag
After a freewheeling round of discussions, Snøhetta’s New York office settled on a unique challenge: building a Lego structure that captured the plastic bricks’ unique relationship to gravity. “A Lego building has a lightness that a real building doesn’t have to contend with,” says Craig Dykers, Snøhetta’s co-founder. “We thought wouldn’t it be interesting to capture the feeling of gravity in a Lego block, where gravity actually has very little influence in many ways on its structure...” — wired.com
Snohetta found a delicate equilibrium with this boomerang-shaped tower. Photo: Gregory Reid SOM froze its unique LEGO infrastructure in a solid block of ice. Photo: Zack Burris View full entry
DataAppeal’s newest release allows our 3D data-maps to be imported into other 3D modeling and vector-based software programs including AutoCAD, Sketch Up and 3ds Max. — DataAppeal
A vast improvement from histograms and scatter plots, data analytics and visualization company DataAppeal now enables its users to export their data into other modeling softwares. DataAppeal's Nadia Amoroso (featured in Archinect's Working out of the Box back in April) told... View full entry
If you haven’t quite wrapped your head around the concept of 3-D printing, or haven’t yet had a digital scanner wrap itself around you, now you can do both in “Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital,” at the Museum of Arts and Design. [...]
And while visionary design shows like that of MoMA are entrancing, there’s something to be said for a more down-to-earth, production-focused exhibition.
— nytimes.com
Like any other technological device currently out there, newer 3-D printing machines aim to out-do the competition and take things to the next level. Enter Mebotics LLC, a group of four friends who spent the past year building the Microfactory. Becoming known as "the world's first Machine Shop in... View full entry
A couple of years ago, I took a temp job assisting an architectural model builder. It was an intense experience - meticulously crafting delicate materials into structural works of art. I became fascinated with the craftsmanship and artistic ability that goes into this work. The advent of 3D printing - as exciting as it is - poses a problem for this art form. If a machine can spit out a 3D version of a building, is the era of model-making coming to an end? — vimeo.com
Instead of specially engineering spacecraft components to fit into a rocket, NASA could densely pack materials like fiber and polymer into existing spacecraft and create the components while orbiting the planet. This cuts down on cost and opens up the possibility for larger spacecraft. — gigaom.com