As a resident of New York City since he was in his teens, artist Troy Huang couldn’t help be be inspired by his adopted home. It was while he was working his way through design school that he came up with his idea for a stunning piece of furniture that would capture the essence of the city, and help him get to know every inch of it at the same time. His “New York City” project is a scale replica of Manhattan that contains every building, street and landmark that the borough features integrated into a 3D printed and LED lit desk. While creating his amazing desk, Huang visited every block of the city, got to know what its purpose was, and tried to learn the history of all of the buildings. His detailed recreation of the city makes for quite the stunning tribute to one of the greatest cities in the world.
Huang started by painstakingly mapping out the geography of the island of Manhattan and then laser cutting sheets of plywood to match the topography. Once all of the plywood sheets were cut, he layered them together and built a 3D version of the island. At that point he started 3D modelling each of the city blocks individually, using reference photos and satellite imagery to make sure that he got the scale correct. All assembled, the frame of the desk measures 30 x 60 x 32 inches.
The city blocks were designed using 3ds Max and Rhino before being printed out using a striking glow-in-the-dark filament that is partially transparent. Each of the individual blocks that Huang designed is an extremely detailed micro-version of the real thing, and it would actually be possible to navigate through Manhattan using the completed city replica as your guide. The fact that this was all done with basic fabrication tools that almost anyone could get access to is simply amazing. But if you think that this is a boring, stuffy model think again, it is full of clever, unique features, like King Kong climbing up the Freedom Tower.
Once the blocks were printed, Huang individually glued each city block in place using an acrylic adhesive called Weld-On 4, which is a water-thin binding agent that bonds thermoplastics together by slightly melting, or welding, both surfaces together. after the entire city was placed he installed strips of LED lighting underneath of it so the buildings would glow up from underneath. To simulate the water from the surrounding Hudson River, Huang used a liquid acrylic that hardens clear and would reflect the light show given off by the LEDs.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download