RIBA Silver Medal nomination and Burning Man build

We are pleased to announce that DS10 student Andrei Jipa has been nominated for the RIBA Silver Medal 2014, for the best part II student project in the UK.

Andrei’s futuristic proposal “Solanopolis” blended a radical futuristic vision with an advanced understanding of mathematics and 3D printing technologies to create a 3D printed city whose design sprang directly from the underlying code in fractals, creating stunning architecture which echoes the implicit mathematical beauty found in Baroque architecture.

In order to physically recreate these proposals Andrei pushed the boundaries of 3D printing, rewriting the code sent to the 3D printer, devising and publicly sharing a new way of 3d printing with the world.

This was all set against a fantastically creative post apocalyptic narrative of an entire culture and economy based around growing potatoes and turning potato starch into plastic for an army of large scale 3d printers to keep on building up from the rising waters of a future flooded world.

It was in our opinion a very creative blending of brave ideas backed up by rigorous technical research and real world physical results, and we think he has a great chance of winning this years prestigious prize.

Andrei’s proposal will be featured soon on the RIBA website http://www.presidentsmedals.com/

  

But wait, there’s more! On top of that yet another DS10 project, Hayam Temple designed by Josh Haywood, has been built over the Summer by a team including past and present DS10 students and  is currently bringing joy to the revellers at this year’s Burning Man festival in Nevada and has been receiving praise all over the place.

The beautiful project inspired by the delicate muqarnas found in Islamic architecture has received great international praise and has been featured across the web…

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/02/hayam-temple-by-josh-haywood-for-burning-man-festival/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/30/burning-man-2014-art_n_5632531.html

http://inhabitat.com/josh-haywood-designs-stunning-lasercut-plywood-pavilion-for-burning-man-festival/

Me and Arthur are greatly looking forward to yet another year of exciting designs and joyful architecture at Westminster University and very excited about the year ahead 🙂

JAM.D G-Code

My study about a custom G-Code for FDM 3d printing geometries based on a central axis (not necessarily a straight line! – any curve would do). Rather than printing layer by layer horizontal sections that are uneven and inefficient in terms of travel time, the slices are consistent and always perpendicular to the central axes. Moreover the transition between layers – rather than being done from a single point through a vertical motion which is the traditional approach – is a continuous gradual motion upwards, the travel path resembling a spiral, thus improving efficiency.