singapore university of technology and design (SUTD) professors felix raspall and carlos banon have continued their ongoing investigation on demonstrating the use of 3D printing for functional, full-scale architectural components. for this year, a mesh-like light art installation was erected for the occasion of the iLight marina bay festival in singapore.

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in comparison to 2016’s installation of a fibrous pavilion situated inside the atrium of the university, the ‘(ultra) light network’ is a light-emitting, lightweight, three-dimensional tetrahedral mesh of 10m x 6m x 3m. more than 50,000 individually addressable LED pixels react to an algorithm running on five microcontrollers, which respond to the presence of visitors using three ultrasonic sensors located at the bases of the structure. in turn, this produces a dynamic and interactive experience of light made of polymers backed by the skyline of singapore and moshe safdie’s marina bay sands towers.

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the project challenges a 10m span by using extremely slender and lightweight elements

 

 

the slender tubes are made of polymers; a total of 715 polycarbonate squared tubes that evenly diffuse light using translucent ABS and nylon that contains a custom-made LED light bulb. the highly resilient and flexible installation required the development of custom parametric tools to determine the tetrahedral topology of the structure. unlike the other systems that exist, the (ultra) light network encompasses a hyper-redundancy element that enables the structure to bsorb stresses and evenly respond to expansion, contraction and loads such as wind or other eventual punctual forces.

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the 152 unique nodes were 3D printed using translucent abs and nylon and contain a custom-made led light bulb

 

 

the project was developed by the multidisciplinary team led by architecture professors felix raspall and carlos bañón, engineering professor elara and postdoctoral researcher felix amtsberg from SUTD, and light designer manuel garrido.

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the installation is a continuation of SUTD’s use of 3D printing for functional, full-scale architectural components

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the three-dimensional tetrahedral mesh stands hovering above the public and pulsates with their movement

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the installation was part of the iLight marina bay 2017 festival

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visitors interact with the light installation

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(ultra) light network developed by a multidisciplinary team led by architecture professors raspall and banon

 

 

project info:

 

(ultra) light network team:
design concept: felix raspall and carlos banon 

project lead: felix raspall, carlos banon, manuel garrido, felix amtsberg and mohan elara
research team: tay jenn chong, pan shiqian, gowdam sureshkumar, thejus pathmakumar, joei wee shi xuan, liu hong zhe, yiping goh, mohit arora and naik hiong chiang.
sponsors: stratasys, center for digital design and manufacturing at sutd, and sutd
LED supplier: bond optoelectronics

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