Printing Architecture

Over the past decade, architecture as well as other affiliated fields have been exposed to several waves of almost techno-fetishistic exuberance related to emerging technologies. One of these waves has been and still is additive manufacturing. The omnipresence of this topic has almost caused a 3D printing fatigue, as repetitiveness—in terms of both material and form aesthetics— and design related self-referencing started to creep it. Printing Architecture manages to offer a reinvigorating perspective on the subject, extending architecture’s material palette and defying the ‘plastic-fantastic’ association related to 3D printing. The authors, Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael, founders of the design practice Emerging Objects, demonstrate a unique material expertise, showcased through innovative material strategies. They use their broad competence to compile a significant contribution to the field of architecture and beyond, by expanding and re-conceptualizing current material landscapes and environments. The declared aim of the authors is ‘to bridge the wide gap that In te rio rs D O I: 10 .1 08 0/ 20 41 91 12 .2 01 9. 15 89 69 2