Project's IaaC - DHUB exhibition

FABRICATION LABORATORY

FABRICATION LABORATORY is a group of activities ( exhibition, real-time manufacturing laboratories, workshops, conferences, etc.) which aim to analyze new three-dimensional digital manufacturing technologies - a phenomenon in constant evolution that is leading to radical changes in design and production processes.

PERMANENT EXHIBITION

The permanent exhibition, Full Print3d. Printing objects provides an introduction to digital fabrication through a series of projects that illustrate the conceptual implications of this type of production for design.

In additive fabrication—popularly known as ‘3D printing’—an object is created by superimposing and solidifying successive, extremely thin layers of a particular material. Whereas other types of digital fabrication grew out of the automation of manual techniques that were already familiar before the advent of the computer (cutting, milling, folding, bending, etc.), additive processes make it possible to produce the object, particle by particle, according to the data sent from the computer. This flexibility allows unprecedented freedom in the shape of the design and the control of the material.

The work being explored developed in various disciplines, illustrates how new concepts in the production of material are emerging, thanks to the adaptation and use of additive fabrication technologies. The versatility of 3D printing technologies can be found in the creation of everyday objects and furniture; the printing of human cell tissue, bone prostheses, food and the adaptation of machines to print buildings, and points to a possible paradigm shift in the creation of the world around us.

All of the objects presented at Full Print3d were created using different additive manufacturing processes and are organize into six thematic areas: freeform, variation, customization, complexity, materiality, and finally, applications and research.

Exhibits are presented within the following categories: Free form , Variation, Customization, Complexity, Materiality, Applications and Research

DHUB FAB LAB

Within the exhibition Fabrication Laboratory a Fab Lab was created and implemented inside the museum.

The DHUB FAB is a digital fabrication laboratory, with CNC machinery, that allows on-site experimentation with prototype and object manufacturing through workshops aimed at both professionals and non-professionals.

DHUB FAB aims to bring technology closer to all of the visitors and also transmit the idea that, just as 2D printers did in the past, 3D digital manufacturing machines will give rise to important changes in the way that we produce and consume and have direct consequences on the economies of present-day production .

THE DESIGN

The current project aims to relate architectural thinking with the potentials of the digital production. The topic of the exhibition (Digital Fabrication and 3D digital manufacturing technologies) set up the principle of the design which had to be generated by this technology itself.

The goal was to pass from the smaller scale of one object to the big scale of a whole exhibition without any interference, tracking down the relationship as well as the practical value in the choice and manipulation of the materials and the geometry, to archive the highest possible efficiency in the production method using CNC machine tools.

The study of the design was made based on “serial thinking” by designing geometric volumes depending on how from the union we could create multiple configurations vertically and horizontally, giving them also the geometry that could yield the necessary surfaces and heights, depending on the exhibits.

Evaluating the geometric design, the initial form that in its repetition was capable of variable connections was a prismatic model. Aggregated itself is designed to offer different connections that are created according to the suitable presentation of each exhibit.

The final prism is composed of three identical rhombus-shaped, two triangular and two trapezium-shaped surfaces. The prism is able to grow vertically and horizontally as well as linear configurations which can turn direction in space at any time.

The fabrication strategy was linked with a folding technique and the material chosen was a composite of aluminum and polyethilenium, a material able to fold as well as offer structural stability.

Material performance has been associated with CNC machine handling, the proper selection of tools and machine programming.

Curated by: Marta Malé–Alemany, Master co-director IAAC
Collaborators: Francisca Aroso, Areti Markopoulou, Massimo Menichinelli

DHUB Fab Lab: Tomás Díez, Guillem Camprodon, Luciano Betoldi

Exhibition Design: IAAC, Areti Markopoulou, Nota Tsekoura