January 2015

Prototyping Landscape

Our Experiments with 3D Printing

RHI tinkers with 3d Printing

Douglas Brooks

Designer

Designer and project manager with Rhodeside & Harwell
Read More

share this articleTweet about this on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInEmail to someone

As the technology continues to improve and evolve, 3D Printing has become a viable resource for designers. The ability to test one’s conception of a physical object is now possible with just a push of a button. Although hand model making has not been totally lost from architectural or landscape architectural practice, the precision and automation of a 3D printer is certainly seductive.

2---3D-printing-logistics
Design Process; Rhino Model, 3D Print bed, Plastic 3D model, Finished bench in garden.

Here at RHI, our usual workflow for design involves: study, a sketch, another sketch, draw it in CAD, model digitally in 3D, study, refine, and repeat—in no definite order, of course. However, having a proposed design physically modeled can produce far better outcomes, especially if multiple iterations are generated for comparison. Not to let this technology pass us by, RHI has begun to tinker with this technology for a few projects. Luckily, many of our projects have been studied in digital 3D space through programs such as SketchUp and Rhino. Transferring these existing files to industry standard 3D print files is relatively seamless.

2 - Sketch by Faye Harwell, FASLA
Sketch by Faye Harwell, FASLA

One such project was for a slender but significant bench to be built as part of a project on well known federal grounds here in Washington, D.C. The organic shape and precise reveals of the bench proved a perfect test. Based on an original sketch from RHI Director, Faye Harwell, we used the derived Rhino model to print the physical object. Once the file was loaded, all we had to do was push ‘print’ and presto: layer by layer .05 millimeters of filament was applied by the 3D printer gently working its ways upwards until our model bench was revealed in hardened white matte plastic form (or filament as it’s referred to in the industry).

Recently installed marble bench
Recently installed marble bench

 

January 20, 2015

Douglas Brooks

Designer

Designer and project manager with Rhodeside & Harwell
Read More

share this articleTweet about this on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInEmail to someone

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>