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Design

Architects Designed an Entirely 3D Printed Room—And It Looks Like Something Out of Alien

Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer have created an algorithmically-designed room printed in sandstone.
Photos: Demetris Shammas /Achilleas Xydis

3D printing and architecture are keen bedfellows, from 3D printed houses to constructing buildings from moon dust architects have been experimenting with the technology in various ways. And you can add to that list the Digital Grotesque project, which uses the technology to construct an intricate and ornate-looking room, digitally-designed, and printed in sandstone.

The two designers behind the project, Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer, unveiled a 1:3 prototype scale model of the room at the Materializing Exhibition in Tokyo and the Swiss Art Awards 2013. The piece is designed algorithmically to create Giger-esque forms that are based on dividing and then repeating shapes to come up with complex and bizarre patterns, as they explain:

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In the project Digital Grotesque we explore the new potentials of digital design using a reduced, minimalist approach that nonetheless transcends rationality.

Inspired by the natural process of cell division, we develop an algorithm that iteratively divides and transforms the initial geometry of a simple cube. Despite simple rules, a complex world of forms arises at multiple scales: between ornament and structure, between order and chaos, foreign and yet familiar: a digital grotesque.

The full scale piece was revealed on July 22, 2013. You can check out some images of the prototype below and a video of its construction below.

@stewart23rd