AMS 2024

3D Printing Meets Green Living in Landscape Architects’ Cella Planters

Electronics
Metal AM Markets
AMR Military

Share this Article

3D printing and eco-conscious design team up once again with the introduction of Cella, the brainchild of Harvard Graduate School of Design graduates and innovators Yongkyu Kim and Jonghyun Baek. Co-founders of Ecoid and landscape architects, Kim and Baek created these 3D printed forms that are reminiscent of organic objects like sea shells and porous stones.

003-1024x615

Each Cella is shaped roughly like a round-edged cube — a sort of cell — and punctured with holes of varying sizes depending upon the overall size of an individual cell. Inside of each Cella is a soil or root ball from which sprout moss and plants.

The idea for Cella grew from a research project called “Mosspebble” on which Kim and Baek collaborated with a visiting scholar to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Professor Niall Kirkwood. Mosspebble was a green roof project. Green roofs are, in essence, “living” roofs of 011-1024x480buildings. They feature vegetation that is grown in a medium such as sphagnum moss along with other nutrients, all of which is planted over a layer of waterproofing. They clean the air in urban environments and capitalize on otherwise unused space and sunlight.

During their research for Mosspebble, the collaborative team noticed that moss had some very special properties: It does not require soil to grow and gets all of its nutrients from the air. It requires varying levels of moisture, wind, and shade and thrives on the porous surfaces of pebbles and rocks. These observations were the seeds of Cella, which was four years in the making.

cella chair

The Ecoid website features a gallery of beautiful photographs of different configurations and sizes of the Cella, which is 3D printed using lightweight UV protected PVC. The photos show Cellas sprouting various plant life and arranged to form a kind of large Cella made up of smaller ones, Cellas suspended from ceilings via nearly invisible threads, Cellas arranged in a small cube that serves for a chair, Cellas dotting a brick wall, and so forth.

Also available on the website are two short videos, which provide instructions for making the “soilballs” and “mossballs” that fit inside each Cella and from which the CELLA-with-plants03-1024x600plants spring. The videos are short and it is not clear at what point seeds are inserted into the soil or moss foundations, but a little research on small space or green roof gardening or a quick email to Ecoid (contact information is provided on the site as well), should provide clarification.

Hopefully, Kim and Baek of Ecoid will provide purchase info for their Cellas or will make the design available for home printing. Whatever the case, the Cellas are refreshingly simple, beautiful testaments to the partnership between 3D printing and innovations in greener living.

Discuss these unique pieces of landscaping architectual in the Cella Forum thread on 3DPB.com

Share this Article


Recent News

CORE Offers to Buy 3D Printing Service Fathom Amid Economic Downturn

$1M to Drive Metal 3D Printing Adoption in ASTRO America Project with GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Honeywell



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

Featured

Biden Admin Announces Flurry of Reshoring Actions, Including Council on Supply Chain Resilience

Yesterday, I posted about the over $6 billion in new funding for US advanced manufacturing related to batteries and semiconductor packaging announced by the Biden administration to be awarded in...

Featured

Biden Admin Announces Over $6 Billion in Funding for Battery and Chip Advanced Manufacturing in November

In a development that has become routine for the Biden administration, the White House announced a total of more than $6 billion in new funding opportunities for advanced manufacturing applications...

America Makes and NCDMM Funding Now Tops $729M for American 3D Printing and Beyond

In a significant move to advance the U.S. manufacturing sector, the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and America Makes have recently announced substantial ceiling increases on their...

US Army Reserve Test 3D Printed Explosives

In October 2023, US Army Reserve Soldiers assigned to the 102nd Training Division (Maneuver Support) attended a two-week Combat Engineer Reclassification Course at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, where they...