Archinect - News

ETH Zurich’s 3D printed sculpture oscillates between ‘opaque boundary’ and ‘transparent curtain’

2024-03-14T12:06:00-04:00

ETH Zurich has unveiled a 6.5-foot-tall lightweight shell fabricated from 3D printing.

Named 'Fluid Forms,' and created by the institution’s Digital Building Technologies group, the structure seeks to showcase “an innovative robotic additive manufacturing method that enables the printing of doubly curved thin shells more efficiently.”

Video courtesy Ιoanna.M/YouTube

The design of Fluid Forms was inspired by the Costa minimal surface, which belongs to a family of shapes that minimize area for a given boundary, resulting in a geometry with strong structural properties. In contrast to horizontal plane printing, the fabrication process sees the print paths align to principal curvature directions, which, according to the team, reduces the need for external support and enhances the precision and surface quality of the curved surface.

Image credit: Dominik Vogel

“The print path orientation is controlled through a vector-field optimization method that has been fi...

Stanford research explores using plastic waste in construction

2023-07-28T14:20:00-04:00

Stanford University has published new research exploring the use of plastic waste in constructing roads and buildings. The research project, funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), identified that recycled glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite – a tensile plastic used extensively in car, boat, and plane parts – shows potential for repurposing in building applications.

The team, led by Stanford engineers Zhiye Li and Michael Lepech, incorporated computer modeling, scientific research, field data, and stakeholder interviews in their research, which was recently published in a white paper. They studied real-world applications such as the utilization of plastic waste for façade panels in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and pavement in a California Department of Transportation road project.

The research highlighted significant challenges in existing p...

U.S. Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale analyzes the human relationship with plastic

2023-05-18T18:11:00-04:00

The United States Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale has been completed ahead of the event’s May 20th public opening. Organized by the Cleveland-based alternative art organization SPACES, and titled Everlasting Plastics, the exhibition seeks to explore “one of the most ubiquitous materials in our world: plastic.”

Externalities by Ang Li. Photo credit: ReportArch / Andrea Ferro Photography

Investigating how plastic has permeated modern life, the exhibition reframes attitudes and approaches toward addressing the overabundance of plastic waste in waterways, landfills, and streets. Acknowledging the global dependence on the material, the pavilion seeks to make a case for a “profound reconsideration for how we coexist with plastics and its possibilities as an agent for change.”

PROOFING: Resistant and Ready by Xavi L. Aguirre. Photo credit: ReportArch / Andrea Ferro Photography

“In representing the United States at La Biennale, we wanted to draw a connection between an indu...

Curators and designers of the U.S. Pavilion will call attention to worldwide plastic dependency at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale

2023-02-16T19:00:00-05:00

The U.S. Pavilion at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens in May, will feature an examination of worldwide plastic dependency through the work of five artists and designers who will deliver site-specific commissions as part of the overall exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko, founder and director of the African Futures Institute.

SPACES' Executive Director Tizziana Baldenebro and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland curator Lauren Leving were selected to co-organize Everlasting Plastics, which will be on display as part of the Pavilion from May 20 – November 26, 2023.

Baldenebro explained, "Inherent to art and architecture is the aesthetic and materiality of form. Everlasting Plastics bridges this divide by drawing on the power of looking to serve as an entry point for reconsidering our relationships to material worlds."

"As the climate crisis becomes a tangible reality, our da...

In 2022, breakthroughs in 3D printing and material science challenged how we build, and what we build with

2022-12-22T08:00:00-05:00

2022 was another productive year in laboratories across the United States and beyond, as colleges, manufacturers, and startups strove to challenge the orthodoxy of construction materials. While teams of students and researchers at institutions from Virginia Tech to ETH Zurich sought to push the boundaries of traditional materials such as timber and concrete, disruptive startups sought to broaden this palette with the introduction of everything from recycled plastic to mushrooms.

These investigations into material science were matched by equally impressive advancements in construction processes, marking 2022 as a year that asked ‘how’ we build as well as ‘what’ we build with. As with previous years, 3D printing featured heavily in 2022’s highlights of intriguing construction innovations, be it new nano-structural 3D printed systems that can sense their own movement, or a growing portfolio of real-world 3D printed homes which signal the arrival of the once-novel process as a viable ma...

16,000 plastic bottles used to create Stonehenge-like monument in Milan

2022-11-25T13:01:00-05:00

UK-based studio VATRAA has created a monument in Milan, Italy composed of thousands of plastic water bottles. The installation, titled Plastic Monument, seeks to bring attention to the issue of plastic pollution.

“Some plastics last up to 1000 years in our landfills and oceans while others might never biodegrade,” the studio notes. “We could argue that plastic waste is our legacy to many generations to come.”

Image credit: VATRAA / Alessandro Ariel Terranova

In response, the studio created a monument in the form of a trilithon, drawing similarities with the ancient Stonehenge site in the UK. The installation seeks to create a stark contrast between the single-use, disposable nature of plastic waste and the timeless nature of ancient monuments, reminding visitors that “what we are doing today might stay on Earth forever.”

Image credit: VATRAA / Alessandro Ariel Terranova

To complete the monument, which stands 25 feet tall, 16,000 plastic bottles were pressed together into bales, and...

U.S. Pavilion at 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale will be organized by Cleveland-based nonprofit SPACES around the role of plastic waste in the built environment

2022-11-15T15:17:00-05:00

Influential Cleveland-based nonprofit gallery SPACES has been selected by the State Department to organize the U.S. Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported recently.

Under the curatorial theme of “Everlasting Plastics,” the group has said they will invite area artists Lauren Yeager, Xavi Aguirre, Simon Anton, Ang Li, and Norman Teague to explore the danger of plastic waste to the ecosystem. All pursue art that entails “thinking very seriously about systems of waste, waste production, and their impact on communities” and will be presented within the Biennale’s broader context of The Laboratory of the Future and led by former Spitzer School of Architecture dean Lesley Lokko.

Li and Yeager are particularly noteworthy for their investigations into the use of recycled plastic as a building material and structural system, while Teague uses it as a source in his furniture-making practice. The exhibition will also focus on “communities most affected by pl...

Herman Miller unveils new Eames Shell Chair made of 100% recycled plastic

2022-10-10T13:33:00-04:00

Furniture giant Herman Miller has announced that its entire portfolio of the iconic Eames Molded Plastic Chairs will now be made using 100% post-industrial recycled plastic. According to the company, this is the equivalent of about 122 tons of plastic per year and a 15% annual carbon reduction.

Accompanying the new material composition is new collection of shell colors, which will include the previously offered Black, White, and Red Orange colors and nine new hues: Evergreen, Cocoa, Deep Yellow, Brick Red, Pale Blue, Medium Grey, Blue Green, Grey Green, and Light Grey.

Previously: Iconic Eames chair is transformed into intriguingly obscure art by British artist and designer Chris Labrooy

The use of recycled plastic is just another iteration of the Shell Chair, which has undergone a variety of material transformations since the chair was first introduced in 1950. The original design included fiberglass, with bent wire included the following year. In 2006, the chairs utilized polyprop...

Recycled plastic blocks designed to hold similar properties to concrete

2022-01-26T16:32:00-05:00

Sustainability startup ByFusion has developed what they describe as “the first construction-grade building material made entirely of recycled, and often un-recyclable, plastic waste.” Named ByBlock, the interlocking blocks use the same principles as LEGO with protrusions on the top surface allowing for blocks to be pieced together to form retaining walls, sheds, privacy fencing, accent walls, landscaping, and furniture.

To create ByBlock, the company collects discarded plastic, which is shredded and superheated before being fused into the completed block with no fillers or adhesives used. The blocks are sized to the same dimensions as standard concrete blocks (16x8x8 inches) but generate 41% less greenhouse gas emissions than concrete blocks during manufacturing, and hold the same thermal resistance value despite being 10 pounds lighter.

Image via ByFusion

"Every ByBlock prevents 22 pounds from being landfilled or incinerated," ByFusion claims. "ByBlocks are designed to integrate...

Pratt students build structures to visualize the impacts and building potential of plastic waste

2022-01-06T10:45:00-05:00

In an effort to represent the toll plastic waste has on the environment, a group of undergraduate architecture students from the Pratt Institute have constructed a series of inflatable structures that put into physical form the research they say simultaneously demonstrates the potential for its reduction and reuse as a building material.

The project was completed through Pratt’s d.r.a. Lab, which is overseen by professors Duks Koschitz and Robert Lee Brackett III. Together with their instructors, the 5-person team worked to test out different techniques useful in the development of walls, tubes, and domes that can be used in a variety of self-supporting structures. The students were then able to install the structures outside of Pratt’s library in order to display the distinctive role of each design.

The Plastic Confusion. Image courtesy Robert Lee Brackett III.

The first design, titled “Super Maxi” organized a network of portals into a unique viewing platform that offers different ...

Kenyan start-up founder uses plastic to make bricks stronger than concrete

2021-02-09T12:24:00-05:00

Materials engineer Nzambi Matee heads a recent start-up called Gjenge Makers, which creates low-cost lightweight building materials from recycled plastic and sand. Beginning with pavers, the company has introduced a product that is stronger and more flexible than concrete, heightening its durability and diminishing its maintenance costs.

A Young Champion of the Earth 2020 Africa winner, Matee wants a future where the perpetual growth of plastic waste in Africa can be utilized to enrich society.

Harvard PPE team uses Slack to design patient isolation hood for hospital use

2020-04-16T13:29:00-04:00

Following up on their efforts to fabricate masks and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for local hospitals, a team of Harvard University-based designers and medical professionals are working to design new PPE devices, including what is known as a Patient Isolation Hood (PIH).

The hood, according to an article posted on the Harvard Graduate School of Design website, consists of a molded plastic shield that is placed between a patient and attending doctors. The shield allows doctors to perform necessary and life-saving procedures on infectious patients, including intubation and other procedures, while protecting the doctors from infection and limiting the potential spread of pathogens.

Views of the PIH equipment being fabricated at GSD’s Gund Hall. Photo courtesy MGB Center for COVID Innovation.

GSD’s website states, “GSD’s Digital Fabrication Specialist Chris Hansen has collaborated with an array of Harvard and GSD colleagues to design two PIH prototypes, fabricating them on...

Pavilion 3D printed from 30,000 up-cycled plastic bottles takes shape in Dubai

2019-12-30T14:22:00-05:00

Located at the Dubai International Financial Center stands an eye-catching pavilion designed by the Middle East Architecture Network (MEAN). Known for their evocative designs using computational design and digital fabrication techniques, their most recent project, Deciduous, highlights the studio's passion for experimentation with fabrication and materials.

Image © Naaro

According to a project statement by MEAN, "Deciduous is composed of a hybrid of 3 different sustainable materials: CNC-milled Birch plywood flooring, Robotically 3D-Printed Concrete Base, and a series of branching 3D-Printed PETG stems, a plastic polymer up-cycled from 30,000 discarded water bottles.” The goal of the pavilion and its unique material construction is to aid spectators by revisiting their "relationship with nature, through an experience reminiscent of walking through an abstracted botanical form," according to the designers.

Image © Naaro

Video Documenting 'Deciduous' Fabrication, Construc...

Mexican nopales could spur an eco-plastic revolution

2019-07-05T13:49:00-04:00

At the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Guadalajara, Sandra Pascoe has successfully used nopales to create biodegradable plastic. It was a series of trial and error for Pascoe, who first started by taking small pieces of dry nopal, which she would then pulverize and mix with other ingredients. But it was too slow a process and she found that the material oxidized too quickly. Eventually, she eventually starting using the liquid inside the prickly pear and found success.

Does the answer to the world’s plastic pollution problem lie in the thick, sticky sap of Mexican cactus fronds? Sandra Pascoe, a researcher at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Guadalajara, Mexico, thinks so. Her team is busy finding ways to transform the syrup into solid, plastic-like materials that decompose without the need for complicated industrial processes and can be made from renewable materials.

Pascoe told Efe, “Basically, the plastic is formed from the sugars of the liquid in the nopal. That the viscous consistency allows for a solid material to be produced.”

Plastic straws, Slinkys, and metallic tape become spatial in this Chicago exhibition

2019-06-25T14:36:00-04:00

Fieldwork, a new exhibition at the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago by American artist Tara Donovan, presents an inventive and imaginative view into the nature of materiality.

The dynamic exhibition, made up of a collection of sculptural works by Donovan interpreting a variety of "mundane" and industrially-derived materials, creates textured works that occupy space in dramatic fashion.

Installation view. Photo: Michael Tropea.

First organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the exhibition demonstrates how "order and structure give way to unpredictability and how the mundane cedes to the marvelous," according to the exhibition website.

Included in the exhibition is a work titled Haze that uses yellowed plastic straws to create a bubbling wall that evokes a mountain range, for example, filling out the end of one gallery while seeming to provide a view to an exterior world.

Haze, a work made from plastic straws. Photo: Michael Tropea.

In another room, an untitled wo...

Print Your City launches its first Zero Waste Lab in Greece

2019-01-17T15:18:00-05:00

Since 2016, the Rotterdam-based research and design studio The New Raw has been experimenting with using plastic waste to create public furniture. Through the 'Print Your City' project—which just launched its first Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece—the firm turns public waste into raw material that is then 3D printed into benches and other street furniture meant to enrich a place.

Zero Waste Lab. Photo by Stefanos Tsakiris.

Equipped with a robotic arm and recycling facilities, residents can bring their plastic waste and design custom urban furniture, shaping the designs and uses of each unique object according to their needs. Residents can pick out the shape and the color for their piece as well as things like which public space to place it in or whether or not it might feature a bike rack or a tree pot.

After settling on a design, Print Your City provides information on the quantity of plastic that will need recycling in order to generate enough raw material. Their initial pro...

A plastic pavilion dazzles in Mexico City through innovation and discourse

2019-01-16T11:56:00-05:00

Showcased during the Mextrópoli International Festival of Architecture, one of the largest festivals in Latin America with over 50,000 people in attendance, I-CONO dazzles the streets of Mexico City. Aimed at creating and sparking discussion around architecture and the city architects, students, locals, and tourists from all over come to the event. The 2018 project winners, Bianchimajer and Anna Merci, were chosen to headline the festival's Mextrópoli Pavilion structure with I-CONO. Made of 2500 plastic bottles and standing a little over 21 feet high, the project reflects on the public's interaction with architecture and the city. The public piece creates an immersive sensorial display, allowing visitors to be transformed through sound, light, shadow, and color all while standing in one of Mexico City's most famous plazas. The pavilion strives to spark thoughts and discussions of how the architecture of Mexico City can be understood and juxtaposed with a temporary public installatio...

The trials and tribulations of the 3D printer

2018-11-21T17:26:00-05:00

For one, there is no such thing as a 3D printer that doesn’t emit concerning microparticles into the air. Even industrial models that appear sealed, complete with fans and filters, put out measurable particulates.

Ask any architecture student, 3D printing can be one of the best and worst things about the design studio. Architectural drawings and renderings are necessary, but in order for the concept to really come to life 3D scale models have acted as catalysts for translating the vision. Physical scale models go hand in hand with architecture. However, just as architecture has developed over time so has the technology.

3D printers have changed the way architects and architecture students alike have communicated their ideas. Ranging in size and capacity, 3D printers can be found in almost every university, institute, and studio. Sci-Arc EDGE student, Laure Michelon, states printers are running "24/7. Everyday. Pretty much everyone has one. There are about 10 printers in our studio." Besides it taking up space, the trials and tribulations of getting the machine set and ready is a whole other ordeal. However, besides the tedious fabrication process, does the 3D printer pose a different kind of...

Startup Pod(o) proposes a tiny-architecture solution to the festival industry's waste problem

2018-11-13T22:17:00-05:00

With the increase in festival events and attendance, one company strives to fix the waste problem these highly attended festivals make. Based in Christchurch, Dorset, Above All C6(n) is a sustainable technology company that is using recycled plastic water bottles to create sustainable alternatives to tents found at festivals. Pod(o) is an accommodation unit that is reusable, stackable, and lockable. It is capable of incorporating solar-power components, an eco water supply, as well as its own bio toilet. Currently holding a capacity of 2 person(s), the team at Above All C6(n) is working on a pod that can accommodate more people.

At the core of its construction are single use plastic flakes that make up its MESR TECNIC (Modular, Extensible, Scalable and Reusable) building components. These lightweight structures are made to reduce the production of more plastic waste. Event organizers claim that many of the tents that are available for rent at festivals...

Recycled plastic blocks are being used to create LEGO-like architecture

2018-01-10T13:37:00-05:00

A company in Colombia is tackling plastic waste issues and affordable housing with a single ingenious solution: interlocking LEGO-like bricks that can be used to build houses for a few thousand dollars per structure. Walls are formed using a slim slotted brick then framed using a thicker module used for beams and columns, locking the smaller units into place and providing rigid vertical and lateral support.

What to do with the heaps and mounds of plastic piling up all over our planet? Build LEGO's. Conceptos Plásticos' technological innovations make their plastic block homes cost only $5,000. The company is also using this new method to build emergency shelters, community and educational buildings.

These upcycled blocks are designed to be used by anyone regardless of construction experience. Conceptos Plásticos boasts building blocks that are fire and earthquake resistant, cost effective, and durable lasting about 500 years.

Japan's timber industry deplores the plastic seats of Tokyo's new stadium

2017-10-19T14:05:00-04:00

Dignitaries at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games will obviously get the best seats--those made of wood--but ordinary common folk will have to make do with plastic.

Less than 1 percent of Tokyo's Olympic Stadium seats will be wooden. Those will be allocated for the best views of the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as track and field events. The country's timber industry has been advocating since 2016 to install wooden seats for all the spectators as a symbol of Japan's craftsmanship and to promote the forestry industry.

'We're very disappointed (with the decision). We will still continue to propose that wooden seats be introduced, as making use of this domestic natural resource will prove beneficial to maintaining the mountain environment and preventing disasters (such as landslides),” said Yasuhide Nakayama, head of the federation of Diet members for the promotion of Japan's timber industry.

This man is building an entire village from recycled plastic bottles

2016-09-16T14:37:00-04:00

"Humanity went through stone age, went through ice age, and today, going through plastic age. We need to find solution,” explains Robert Bezeau, the man intent on amending the global reach of plastic waste by building houses out of it. A transplant to Panama from Montreal, he has started building an entire village from discarded plastic bottles, placing them inside metal cages, and then stacking them into a simple house structure.

A recent scientific study estimates that currently, there are over 150 million tons of plastic waste in our oceans, and by 2050, that amount could outnumber fish. In places like Bocas del Toro, where Bezeau is building his plastic village, a rapid influx of new residents produced waste at a rate the city couldn't handle, resulting in an overflow of plastic garbage.

To cope with the issue, Bezea began gathering plastic bottles from locals and using them as building insulation. Check out The Atlantic's video below for his story.

Bezea isn't the only one buildin...

Turning plastic trash into "LEGO"-like building materials

2016-07-25T20:36:00-04:00

The [plastic] materials are thoroughly cleaned, before being ground into a rough power, mixed, melted and extruded into a range of shapes – mostly beams, blocks and pillars – which lock together to form buildings. Importantly, [Conceptos Plásticos] also trains communities in how to build these structures, giving them ownership over their homes [...] Like LEGO blocks, these interlocking structures don’t need adhesive to be strong and sturdy, which makes them a good option for mobile shelters.

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Rotterdam considers paving its roads with recycled plastic

2015-07-10T18:39:00-04:00

The construction firm VolkerWessels unveiled plans on Friday for a surface made entirely from recycled plastic, which it said required less maintenance than asphalt and could withstand greater extremes of temperature– between -40C and 80C. Roads could be laid in a matter of weeks rather than months and last about three times as long, it claimed. The company said the environmental argument was also strong as asphalt is responsible for 1.6m tons of CO2 emissions a year globally