Croatian Exhibition at 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale is a 3D Printed Cloud Pergola

As the name suggests, the Venice Biennale is an event that has occurred every second year, with the exception of years affected by world wars, since it was founded in 1893 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of King Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy. Since then the Biennale Foundation has expanded to offer exhibitions of music, theater, and architecture. This year, for the 16th edition of the Architecture Biennale, the Croatian Pavilion at the Biennale is making a splash with its exhibition of a 3D printed Cloud Pergola designed by Croatian architect Alisa Andrasek, Founder of Biothing and Professor of Design Innovation Technology at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), and printed by the London firm of Ai Build, which specializes in autonomous large scale 3D printing.

The Pergola was created to capture the movement and feeling of clouds, while also raising issues of modern technology and archetypal building forms, as explained by Andrasek:

“Cloud Pergola is coming out of a deep lineage of my research on high resolution architecture, structures that are information-rich, co-designed with algorithms and AI, and built by robots. Resonating the complexity of cloud formations and weather events, this mathematized cloud reimagines curatorial call for the pergola, in itself an architectural filter that here becomes a form of synthetic weather itself. Movement through this n-dimensional architectural fabric generates a series of dynamic interference patterns, drifts and ruptures in visibility. Vectorial storm is captured through its structural fibers, pulling the visitor like an invisible gravity force, through an awe-inspiring experience.”

The pergola is one of the world’s largest 3D printed structures at nearly 11 feet (3.3 meters) in height and covering an area of almost 189 square feet (57.6 square meters). Particularly interesting is that its fabrication was undertaken almost entirely by robots, and after large pieces of the structure were printed seamlessly, those portions were then shipped from London to Venice for the final assembly. Daghan Cam, Co-Founder and CEO of Ai Build, described what it means to use technologies such as AI and 3D printing to fabricate pieces such as Cloud Pergola:

“This project is a glimpse of what architecture is evolving into with the advancements in technology. Traditionally architects used to design with the constraints of standard, labour intensive fabrication methods. Now we are giving designers the ability to produce almost anything with robots. This new paradigm in fabrication is opening up the possibility to produce very complex designs that are driven by data, performance and novel aesthetics. Cloud Pergola is the perfect example of a strong, lightweight structure with unseen aesthetic qualities made possible by likeminded designers, engineers, technology specialists.”

The Croatian Pavilion was curated by Bruno Juricic and will be on display from May 25 through November 25, 2018.

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[Source: Arch Daily]