3D Printing Panel: All Stars in All Dimensions

3D Printing Panel: All Stars in All Dimensions

3D-Printed Power House? Oak Ridge National Laboratory and design giant SOM are currently working on AMIE 1.0, a demonstration project that features a 3D-printed enclosure powered with renewable energy from a 3D-printed vehicle.

Coming March 30: For ticket information, click here.

by ROB McMANAMY | March 9, 2016

Physicists say that, in reality, our world actually may have as many as 10 dimensions — although that last one is really a catch-all for infinite possibilities — but in design and construction, all the rage currently is focused on not just the realities, but the expanding concrete possibilities of 3D printing. Every day, new applications seem to emerge that may portend lasting change to both the how and the what of the built environment. Three weeks from today, BuiltWorlds will address all of it.

On March 30, we will host The Realities of 3D Printing, a special event that, as you may know from previous stories here, will also serve as the culmination of our ongoing joint venture with an energetic team of mechanical engineering students from Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering. The students, themselves, have chronicled their tireless work this semester to successfully complete an additive manufacturing process for concrete delivery. In other words, they are racing to build their own 3D concrete printer in time to present at BuiltWorlds.  But that's not all...

Students make up only part of our March 30 program. Also onstage that night in the BuiltWorlds Studio will be James Wolff, CEO of NYC-based D-Shape Enterprises, which holds the first permit for 3D printed construction in the U.S. He will be joined by Dr. Behrok Khosnevis, founder of Contour Crafting and a professor at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. Pitted against more than 1,000 tech competitors from all over the world, Contour Crafting's computerized construction technology won the Grand Prize in the 2014 NASA Tech Briefs Create the Future design contest.

Last, but not least, is designer Maged Guerguis, project lead for Chicago-based SOM on its current project in Tennessee, where the firm is now teaming with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in a broad public-private partnership focused on rapid innovation and collaboration to produce global energy solutions. This initial demonstration project features a 3D-printed enclosure designed by SOM and powered with renewable energy from a 3D-printed vehicle developed by ORNL. (To see the exclusive BuiltWorlds story on this project from last fall, click here.)

For a preview of our speakers, here are three videos featuring them and/or their topics:

NOTE: The below TEDx TALK from Prof. Koshnevis has been viewed by more than 1.2 million people!

BELOW: The University of Tennessee-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Energy + Urbanism collaboration is a five-year research exploration in science and design involving SOM, and the school’s College of Architecture and Design, from which Guerguis is a graduate.