Project Highlights

This research has brought together different skill sets from various branches of industry (building, fashion, software, hardware), other disciplines (microbiology, gardening and material sciences) and crafts (metal casting and pottery) in order to achieve untested transdisciplinary synergies. The projects attracted over £210,000 in external sponsorships and grants from international public institutions and industry partners.

The projects have been recognised individually: Pahoehoe Beauty is one of the largest and heaviest biodegradable 3D prints made to date. Terrestrial Reef, meanwhile, was installed as part of a silver medalwinning Chelsea Flower Show pavilion.

The Baumit BauMinator® is now available as a market-ready product for industry application, creating complex shapes ranging from 50 cm to 5 m. The research also generated the formation of a spin-off company in Austria, incremental3D, who specialise in 3D printing with concrete.

Software packages developed for the series have since become industrially available due to their potential for wider application. Taco for Rhinoceros, which was improved with the production of each prototype, is now utilised by international institutions and has had approximately 3,000 downloads at the time of writing.

Specific hardware was also developed, to adapt existing industry solutions to the specificities of 3D extrusion by robotic arms, e.g. handheld extrusion welders (series ExOn) with Herz.

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54 Liquid Rock exhibited at Galerie Göttlicher in Krems-Stein, 2018.

55 Liquid Rock permanently installed at Wachtberg Sculpture Park, 2018.