Catalan visionary architect Antoni Gaudì forever shaped Barcelona’s cityscape, with his futuristic creations inspired by nature and religion. While the Casa Batllò and La Pedrera may certainly be an inspiration for the 3D printed houses of tomorrow (and, perhaps indirectly, those of today), the Park Güell is the ideal source of inspiration for multi-colour, biomimicry 3D printed designs such as TRIG, a new work by creative artist Daniel Hilldrup.
Hilldrup collaborated with Stratasys to 3D print his vision for a 46 colour lampshade, also somewhat reminiscent of a popular theatrical character in Italy, Harlequin. The only way to create it as a single piece made up of many different colour triangles was through Stratasys’ latest Object500 Connex 3 system, which is apparently the only 3D printer capable of producing multi-density, multi-color objects.
The Connex 3’s technology is an evolution of resin based Polyjet tedhnology, which Hilldrup used in the past for two other works of art: ReGen, a diplomatic gift from the UK to Israel, and Flux. This time around Hilldrup could experiment with multiple colours using the cyan, magenta and yellow colour palette, while a script was developed to randomly allocate the 46 different colour combinations along the surface of the single-piece lampshade.
“It is more in the spirit of Gaudi than one particular work of his, although without doubt his work at Park Güell in Barcelona had a large impact on me,” Hilldrup said. “In the wider sense, it is more about the reinterpretation of organic forms using contemporary tools and methods of the time, as did Gaudi.”
“The capture and transformation of dynamic forms under physically simulated forces into something else is at the heart of my work, and is a theme I have often revisited.” The project, the first by Hilldrup involving the newest Stratasys technology, went off without a hitch, shining once again the light on one of the greatest and most forward-thinking creative artists of the 1900’s.
