This project won the 2013 Architizer A+ Jury Award in the materials category. See the full list of winners here.

3D printing technologies have been all the rage in the tech and design industries for a couple of years now. Things may have peaked in 2012, the year that not only saw the most op-eds and media flurry devoted to the ethics and aesthetics of the “movement,” but also its widest applications in practical (and not-so practical) life. From toys and fashion lines to houses and even lunar bases, 3D printing can do it all, it seems, but the technology still seems beyond most of our means. For one thing, the printers themselves tend to be large, bulky, and expensive, while they’re also difficult to use.

“Building Bytes” seeks to change all of that. The project presents an entirely novel building technique, using small, desktop 3D printers to print “bricks” that can be stacked, arrayed, or interlocked to build structural walls. These bricks (or “bytes”) are made from a “liquid slip cast recipe” that hardens with the thickness and durability of earthen ceramics. As the unit prints, the material shoots out in strands in the outline of a chosen form, of which the designers have tested 4 variations: 1) columns and towers, 2) domes of interlocking bricks, 3) vertical tiling, 4) modular honeycomb stackable bricks. But if you’re savvy, you can of course design your own brick(s) and joint system to connect them.

Currently, the Building Bytes team is hard at work testing out different materials for printing their mass-customized bricks. Click through for more, plus a video showing how it all works.  

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Much—far too much—has been made on the future of 3D printing, with a lot of the commentary pointing to the technology’s mass-democratizing potential. (To say nothing of its “emancipatory” promise to fundamentally alter our lives and work—a notion that, I’m sure we all can agree, is a big joke.) For the time being at least, 3D printers are expensive objects that require a specialized education to use them. This education may become more widespread down the line, but right now, it’s highly concentrated in universities and “forward-thinking” private kindergartens and elementary schools that cost the same as universities. What if there were an alternative, less exclusive vehicle for delivering 3D printing to the public?

Enter the 3Doodler, the world’s first 3D printing pen. When in use, the pen spews hot strands of ABS plastic “ink” that immediately harden and stiffen and which can be arrayed to form upright micro-structures. Developed by WobbleWorks, purveyors of toy and robotic products, the 3Doodler makes it possible for you take your drawing off the page and into reality. And it couldn’t be easier to use—after all, what’s more intuitive than drawing? Continue.

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Architecture makes space material. Traditionally, it has done so through stacking, curving, and pouring of stone, brick, concrete, or dirt. Latest advancements in technology have made possible to manipulate materials like never before. Given the right amount of tooling, nearly any material can be accommodated to any form or shape, however outlandish they may be.

The five finalists for the Architizer A+ “Materials” award each investigate new paths for materials old and new. Click through for the slideshow!

Spot a favorite? Make sure to vote for it over at the A+ Public Voting site!

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All images: Foster + Partners

Having conquered the world of architecture on earth, Foster + Partners have their sights set on last frontier for their latest project. The firm has released plans for a 3D-printed moon base that will be constructed using lunar soil (nerd speak: “regolith”). Designed in conjunction with the European Space Agency, the lunar homes will have space for up to four and will feature a hard printed shell to shield the inhabitants from the elements, of the galactic variation that is: namely, meteorite showers, gamma radiation, and extreme temperature changes. Continue.

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A+ juror Neri Oxman with a look she helped design from Iris van Herpen’s Spring Couture collection. 

MIT Lab designer (and A+ juror!) Neri Oxman‘s amazing bio-armor made an appearance at Iris van Herpen’s Spring 2013 runway at Paris Fashion Week Monday. Oxman teamed up with the Belgian couturier and 3D printer Stratasys to create a bubbled mini skirt and cape covered in trip-tastic trompe l’oeil seashells. (We’re swooning over the photos!) The sci-fi collection also included a flexible, harness-like little black dress designed with Austrian architect Julia Koerner and laser-sintered by Materialise. Click through for more!

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It’s always great to see what happens when design fields from different ends of the spectrum, say fashion and architecture, mix. Typically, architecture is used as a backdrop to showcase a deisgner’s selected fashions, with the building forms complementing (or contrasting) the clothes and models on display. Still, there is always an exception to the rule— case in point, Joshua DeMonte’s line of wearable accessories that scale down pieces of architecture for the body. The collection incorporates elements of classical architecture such as porticoes, aqueducts, staircases, and arcades into over-the-top collars and  twisted, brick-laden bangles. Read more.

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We’ve covered our fair share of stories about 3D printing, including co-working spaces, installations, and even chocolate bars, but surprisingly, we have yet to write about anything as ambitious as a 3D-printed house. Designed by Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars, the Landscape House is notable for its coiled, acrobatic form—with double-curved walls and twisting floorplates—which would prove an impossibility using conventional concrete construction methods. That’s why Ruijssenaars resolved to build (or theoretically build) his zany home using a 3D printer. Read more.

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Architizer is hosting the world’s definitive architectural awards program, with 50+ categories and 200+ jurors. As part of an ongoing series, we’re spotlighting projects that fit into “Plus” categories, including “Fabrication,” that tap into topical and culturally relevant themes. To see a full list of categories and learn more about the awards, visit architizerawards.com.

Don’t let the flashy renderings fool you. The future of architecture lay not so much in novel forms as in new methods of digital fabrication. In an age of rapidly diminishing resources, architects must develop, together with research laboratories, tech leaders, and software designers, efficient construction models that make more with less. This will require new types of mechanical and robotic armatures, which prove more nimble, accurate, and thus, efficient at building both complex and simple structures, to put those new model into practice. The goal is to put all of these ingenious ideas to the test, and develop the best for widespread application at every scale.

Fabrication innovations have thoroughly and irrevocable changed the making of architecture, and architects should welcome that change. That just doesn’t mean corporate designers like Foster + Associates that have now have robotic and digital fabrication wings, but also smaller firms that are responsible for the majority of building. These techniques and machines should be made available and affordable to every kind of architect, and not exclusively licensed to the larger firms. Here’s to hoping for an office robot arm!

Click on through for self-building architecture, giant 3D printers, blood bricks, and of course, robots, robots, robots.

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By Karen Wong
Karen Wong is the Deputy Director at the New Museum and an Architizer A+ Awards juror. In an on-going series, she profiles the latest and most interesting architects, designers, and thought leaders to join the A+ jury. See her previous post on Arup’s Rory McGowan here.

Maps are beloved by architects and designers. They reveal the nature of civilizations, migration of peoples, and often surprises that lie just beneath our feet, like the secret tunnels below the Vatican City. Mapping, as in the process of plotting data to inform a design practice, takes this affinity for logistics even further. The process is being readily integrated by architects and designs as a tool with which to craft anything and everything from monumental parabolic architecture to artificial ligaments and tendons. Three high priestesses have made mapping a new religion, and each has gained a devoted following: Paola Antonelli (the discourse on mapping), Zaha Hadid (mapping buildings) and lesser-known Neri Oxman (mapping matter). Continue.

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Rapid prototyping is all the rage; heck, we’ve been touting this fabrication technique for months! The rise in popularity is no doubt attributed to these technologies becoming more widely accessible, but let’s be honest, not all of us are lucky enough to have access to a 3D printer at the drop of a hat. Fortunately, the good folks at 3dprintuk have developed London’s first 3D-printing co-working office space, creating a home for 3D design enthusiasts. Read more!

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