Benjamin Dillenburger created a room as intricate as one built over hundreds of years, in a matter of days. His tool? A 3-D printer. Matthew Hague talks to the architect about pushing the boundaries of digital design and his dream of one day printing an entire house
(Hansmeyer/Dillenburger)
By Matthew Hague
December 10 2014, Special to The Globe and Mail
The operatic curves of baroque architecture are enthralling to visitors of Europe’s 17th-century cathedrals, palaces and grottoes. But in a modern world obsessed with efficiency and expediency, enthralling isn’t good enough to justify the mountain-high price tag and years of manual labour required to erect such structures.
Which is why Benjamin Dillenburger’s designs are such a revelation.
In 2013, the German-born, Swiss-educated architect unveiled a room that is as dynamic and intricate as something built over hundreds of years. But the space, called Digital Grotesque, took days, not eons, to fabricate. And it didn’t involve a single stone chisel. The architecture was conceived using algorithms. It was then spat out by a 3-D printer (a massive one that uses layers of crushed quartz to make sandstone). Read more…