Sand 3d printing, Metal casting
Deep facade is the first metal facade cast in a 3D-printed moulds, designed, fabricated and assembled in Zurich. It is made of 26 articulated panels, combined into a structure that’s six metres high and four metres wide.
The focus of our design was on highlighting the special material properties of metal: liquidity and strength, as well as taking advantage of the possibilities that are afforded by the 3d printing technique: differentiation and geometrical complexity ‘for free’.
The design is based on creating surface from a line which coils and makes loops in an almost fractal, non repetitive way, never intersecting with itself, but sometimes touch- ing tangentially. After the generation of the line using a differential growth algorithm, its profile is created. It is also variable, starting from an extrusion of the line which changes direction, thickness and shape based on rules and fabrication constraints, to create a rich visual result that captures the light in a variety of ways.
Acknowledgments
This project was developed during the three months project called “Liquid metal” in ETH dFab, Zurich
Teaching Team: Mania Aghaei Meibodi (course lead), Benjamin Dillenburger, Mario Rinke, Marirena Kladeftira, Thodoris Kyttas
Students: Barzani Sahar, Cena Martinez Fernando, Georgia Chousou, Enz Alexander, Jeong Moonyoung, Lin “Frank” Cheng-Huang, Lomaglio Matteo, Mitropoulou Ioanna, Nizar Taha, Okawa Haruna, Pastrana Jimenez Armando Rafael , Regalado Abascal Francisco, Jetana “Jet” Ruangjun, Su Jun, Wu Zong-Ru, Yao Wang, Yoo Angela
Industry partners: Christenguss AG, DGS Druckguss-Systeme AG, ExOne Gmbh
Photo credits: Jetana Ruangjun
Related research: http://dbt.arch.ethz.ch/research-stream/digital-metal-3d-printing-for-casting-metal-parts/