Digital Grotesque – the new face of architecture.

Entering into the grand 16 square meters of “Digital Grotesque” you could easily mistake it for the intricate interior of a Baroque cathedral in fact what stands before you is the first ever “fully immersive, solid, human-scale enclosed structure entire 3D printed out of sand.

Designed and developed by Swiss architects Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger, the 11 tonne structure exhibits an impressive 260 million surfaces with a layer resolution of 0.13mm.

Speaking on the projects website the team describe the project as “neither foreign nor familiar” as it straddles both chaos and order  and the natural and artificial. The building was not created by traditional design methods rather by an algorithm which at its most basic level gradually refines and enriches a simple input form. Their website stated “any reference to nature or existing styles are not integrated into the design process, but are evoked only as associations in the eye of the beholder”

The project took 13 months to complete with the entire structure built in just one month! Less concerned with functionality than with the expressive formal potentials of digital technologies, the work of Hansmeyer and Dillenburger examines the spatial experiences and sensations that these technologies enable.

Watch the video below

Digital Grotesque . Printing Architecture from Digital Grotesque on Vimeo.

Join in the Mysterabbit Urban Art Project at this years TCT Show + Personalize

A modern twist on the age old cliche “Stop and smell the roses” urban art project Mysterabbit is taking the world by storm. From South Korea to the United States thousands of tiny meditating bunny statues  are appearing in random spots in across the world.

The project aims at encouraging hurried city residents to slow down and enjoy life’s small pleasures. Speaking on the project Ji Lee and his team of public art enthusiasts stated “we hope [Mysterabbits] will stop people from their daily routine for a brief moment, make them wonder about their mysterious, newly found gift”.  To find out if Mysterabbit sculptures have already reached your town check out the map on the Mysterabbit website.

The public is actively encouraged to get involved in the project with a blueprint for the Mysterabbit sculptures available online to print on your own 3D printer. Free sculptures can also be ordered directly through the Mysterabbit website however expect a wait due to growing demand for these sculptures. Belfast based Rapid Prototyping and Additive Manufacturing bureau LPE have decided to show support for this project by producing 200 free Mysterabbit sculptures which they will be giving away at the TCT Show + Personalize later this month (25th & 26th September), simply visit their stand F42 at the NEC Birmingham  for your free model.

Mysterabbit visits Belfast