Mar.27, 2014

Architect, designer and MIT Professor Neri Oxman today announced the debut of "Gemini", a two-part chaise longue designed in collaboration with Professor W. Craig Carter, Department of Materials Science and Engineering of MIT, using 3D printering technology.

Conveying the relationship of twins in the womb through material properties and their spatial arrangement, the two piece cocoon-like structure combines subtractive and additive manufacturing processes. It uses the Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printing technology from Stratasys which enables a variety of material properties and color combinations to be printed in a single build.

In a design commission to explore how materials interact with the human body, the twin chaise features an enclosure which cushions the body within a colored, multi-material 3D printed cocoon, replicating the tranquillity of the womb. A solid wood shell house provides the protective exterior. Lining Gemini from the inside are 44 composite PolyJet digital materials, including color. The 3D printed "skin" uses Stratasys' unique triple jetting technology and combines three base materials: Stratasys' rubber-like TangoPlus, rigid VeroYellow and VeroMagenta, forming varying shades of transparent and opaque yellows and oranges, in different rigidities. The materials, shapes and surfaces of the 3D-printed skin enable a unique vibrational acoustic effect for a quiet calming environment.

"The chaise is designed using curved surfaces that tend to reflect the sound inwards. The surface structure scatters the sound and reflects it into the 3D printed skin that absorbs that sound and creates a sound absorbing, a very very quite and calm environment." explains Professor Oxman. "We've used 44 materials, 44 digital materials with preset mechanical combinations to vary the degree of elasticity, thereby varying the degree of sound absorbance depending on curvature."

"The Connex3 really introduces the designer to a pallet that is endless, because one can think about varying the structural properties, the environmental properties, the acoustical properties, perhaps even the fragrance of the material itself. One can think about those materials as a kind of a cooking process with different spices and different smells and different effects, and it's just endless."

"The twin chaise spans multiple scales of the human existence extending from the warmth of the womb to the stretches of the Gemini zodiac in deep space. It recapitulates a human cosmos, our body, like the constellation, drifting in quiet space." says Oxman.

"Stratasys' new multi-material color 3D printing capability has allowed me to create a rich dialog between sound and light, rigid and flexible, natural and man-made materials and high and low spatial frequencies in ways that were impossible until now."

Gemini will be unveiled tomorrow March 28th 2014 at the "Vocal Vibrations" exhibition at La Laboratoire in Paris, France.

Watch an interview with Professor Neri Oxman about the Gemini chaise here. Neri describes her vision and surprising inspiration for the ground-breaking Gemini acoustic chaise.

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

Maybe you also like:


   


jd90 wrote at 3/27/2014 5:23:13 PM:

That resting surface looks like a tongue. The color pattern doesn't help. No thanks. While that surface shape probably does a lot, I don't think that shape is necessary for good noise reduction.

jd90 wrote at 3/27/2014 5:22:48 PM:

That resting surface looks like a tongue. The color pattern doesn't help. No thanks. While that surface shape probably does a lot, I don't think that shape is necessary for good noise reduction.



Leave a comment:

Your Name:

 


Subscribe us to

3ders.org Feeds 3ders.org twitter 3ders.org facebook   

About 3Ders.org

3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.

News Archive