Printed Morphologies | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022
Awarded The Bartlett Medal
lewis.brown.20@ucl.ac.uk
The Isle of Portland is an experimental testing ground to explore a novel methodology of architectural design through the medium of the physical model and the digital vector toolpath. Portland is a landscape formed through the geological layering of organic matter, compressed into sedimentary Portland Stone. Similarly, the deposition of material through the technique of 3D printing can be understood as a geological making process, elevated to a performative art practice through iterative feedback systems and reactive drawing practices.
The exploratory design process results in a taxonomy of novel making techniques spanning additive, subtractive and reactive material processes, empirically tested through the fabrication of a 1:5000 working model-landscape. The dynamic printer bed acts as a flux terrain that can shift seamlessly between scales, existing as a dualistic state spanning the geological landscape of Portland and the printed topography of the generative physical model.
3D Printing as Performative Making Practice
Advanced methods of 3D printing are developed through the bespoke design of GCode toolpaths, discovering an architectural language inherent to the performative extrusion process.
Model Making Framework
The Isle of Portland is reimagined and designed through a bespoke model making framework that gives agency to the digital tools of fabrication.
3D Printing the Isle of Portland
Portland becomes a test bed for experimentation outputted through numerous unique material processes, constructing a new geological record of vectorised toolpaths.
Pebble Drawing Machine
Shingle pebbles taken from Chesil Beach are used to construct a new form of digital sculpted architecture that edits the architectural GCode drawing in real time.
Reimagining Portland
The layering of physical model in landscape seamlessly navigates between scales and timescapes, calibrated through light and the shared medium of the vector toolpath.
