Sep 1, 2016 | By Tess
The saying ‘records are made to be broken’ certainly rings true today as Beijing’s amazing 3D printed Vulcan Pavilion has been ousted as the world’s largest 3D printed structure. The Vulcan, which measured in at an impressive 8.08 meters in length by 2.88 meters in height, has been dwarfed by Beijing’s new Rise Pavilion which was realized through a collaborative and educational effort. The new pavilion, which weighs a total of 1.8 tons, spans 110 square meters and measures 3.4 meters in height, was officially awarded the Guinness World Record for largest 3D printed structure on August 20th, 2016.
The expansive 3D printed Rise Pavilion is the result of an initiative put forth by Rise Education, Beijing-based 3D design studio DeFacto, and marketing firm Edelman. Together, they set out to create a both stunning and educational record breaking structure that would draw attention to their cause. That is, the structure was inspired by Rise Education’s Young Creator Cup and each part of the pavilion (it is made up of five petal-like segments) represents a different section of the Creator Cup competition: health, transportation, society, education, and art & design.
Not only is the pavilion impressive to behold, however, but it also functions as an exhibition space for the Young Creator’s Cup, and showcases a number of student 3D printing projects and their accompanying information. When the exhibition wraps up, the pavilion will be taken down and its individual parts have been designed to be both reused and recycled.
The recycling (or rather upcycling) aspect of the structure’s design is pretty ingenious and was conceived of by DeFacto’s design team, led by American architect Leandro Rolon. Specifically, the large 3D printed structure is made up of 5370 hollow blocks, which when disassembled can be used as table lamps, magazine holders, or planters. The blocks themselves were 3D printed out of Polymaker’s PolyPlus biodegradable filament, and were designed to be easy to build with.
As DeFacto’s press release about the structure explains, “It was essential for the team that the structure was easy to construct and deconstruct, yet stable enough to withstand a significant force. Most importantly the structure could not use adhesives or contain non-3D printed hardware as per Guinness World Record regulations. With modularity in mind a Lego-like connection system was utilized, allowing the pavilion to be reconfigured in various environments while remaining structurally sound.”
Amazingly, the system of modular blocks they devised allowed for the record breaking structure to be built within only 3 days. The individual blocks were also designed with great precision as the designers were adamant about reducing material waste as much as possible. This meant that the blocks were designed to be printed without extra support materials, and were made with varying infills (both for material efficiency and different translucencies). Beijing based 3D printing company UCRobotics 3D printed all 5370 blocks in just 45 days using an impressive fleet of 70 desktop 3D printers.
Currently, the Rise Pavilion can be seen at the Longhu Era building in the Daxing District in Beijing as part of the ongoing Young Creator Cup exhibition. When the exhibition wraps up on September 6th, all of the student participants will be allowed to take home a block from the structure to be used as they like, whether as a lamp or planter. This means that not only will the students have a nice souvenir from their memorable experience, but that the structure itself will be upcycled into a number of new and decorative pieces. The ultimate goal of the project is to make young generations think about recycling and ecological design and to encourage “a shift towards multi-functional and environmentally friendly goods.”
Images courtesy of DeFacto
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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So, technically, this is the world's largest structure _assembled_ entirely from 3D-printed objects, rather than a structure built entirely _by_ 3D printing, like the one at WASP's 'technological village' at Massa Lombarda in Ravenna, Italy?
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