The CEO of 3D printing MAKEtake Emerging Objects will present “Alternative Materials for 3D Printing in Design, Art and Architecture” at Western New Mexico University on Monday, November 12, at 6 p.m. The free talk, which is the third in WNMU’s Emerging Technologies and Creative Commerce lecture series, will take place in Parotti Hall (just northwest of the Fine Arts Center Theatre on campus).
Guest lecturer Ronald Rael is an associate professor of architecture and holds the Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California Berkeley, and he is also Co-founder of Emerging Objects, a 3D printing MAKEtank specializing in innovations in 3D printing architecture and building components.
“I am very excited to hear Ronald Rael discuss how 3D printing can be used to produce tangible objects for architecture rather than just plastic prototypes. I believe that his expertise with making will be valuable to our community,” WNMU Expressive Arts Department Chair Michael Metcalf said.
Rael believes that 3D printed architecture has the ability to transcend the way that buildings are made today. “3D printers allow architects to be material morphologists. They expand our ability to construct because they open the door for us to test material, form and structure simultaneously and instantly,” he said.
For this reason, 3D printing is sustainable method of manufacture because it can take advantage of local and ecological material resources. “In an era of throw away consumerism and over consumption, excessive energy use, too much waste, and toxic materials, architects have a responsibility to the public and the planet to change our mindset about what our buildings are made of and how they function, and to inform the manufacturing processes used to construct architecture,” Rael said.
Rael’s research introduces new possibilities for digital materiality. “Because of the nature of these materials, they can be sourced locally (salt, ceramic, sand), come from recycled sources (paper, rubber), or be byproducts of industrial manufacturing (wood, coffee flour, grape skins),” he said.
These materials also lend themselves to unnatural possibilities, Rael said, as they may have the ability to be formed with no formwork, translucency, high structural capabilities, and the potential for water absorption and storage.
The Emerging Technologies and Creative Commerce Lecture Series sponsored by PNM is part of a long-term project working toward a WNMU-run community Makerspace. For this portion of the project, WNMU is hosting lectures and workshops designed to engage the entrepreneurial community.