digital grotesque: full-scale 3D printed room realized

a fully immersive, human-scale architectural object, created by michael hansmeyer and benjamin dillenburger emerges as the first life-sized construction to be entirely 3D printed out of sandstone. ‘digital grotesque‘ is now a realized space, consisting of two individual halves that form an aggregate volume — the grotto. from the outside, the structure presents itself as a cubical mass, but its interior hides an intricate geometry of millions of design facets. the room’s impossible ornamentation and free-form geometries represent a paradigm shift within the field of digital fabrication.

image courtesy of hansmeyer / dillenburger

every aspect of the object is materialized by custom designed algorithms. using computer based data input, a geometric mesh of 260 million specified micro-details emerges as an architectural unit. the medium, and the process of its assembly, is a carefully chosen component of the project. sand-printing technology has recently emerged as manufacturing technique that overcomes the limitations of 3D printing, which typically is confined to prototyping and small-scale models. the process allows the creation of large-scale elements with high resolution and accuracy, which are fully self-supporting and can be assembled as a solid construction.

digital grotesque. printing architecture
video courtesy of digital grotesque

in june, designboom covered the 1:3 scale prototype of ‘digital grotesque’, which premiered in the swiss art awards in basel, switzerland. our feature, which includes detailed images of the generation and fabrication process, can be seen here.

image courtesy of hansmeyer / dillenburger

image courtesy of demetris shammas / achilleas xydis

grotto interior
image courtesy of hansmeyer / dillenburger