You may have read the title of this story and thought to yourself, “4D Printing? I’m only just starting to understand what 3D printing is all about.” Well, if you are a regular reader of our site than you likely have at least heard of 4D printing before. Nervous System, a design studio founded in 2007 by Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg and based in Somerville, MA, is leading the way in this incredibly interesting field.
If you recall, back in December, after teaming with Shapeways, Nervous System unveiled an incredibly intricate 4D printed dress based on a system they call Kinematics. The dress was able to be printed in a single piece at approximately 15% of the actual dress’ size. This was enabled by a design which featured 2,279 triangular panels, connected by 3,316 hinges, allowing it to be
This Kinematics dress is only the start of what Nervous System feels will be the bright future of 4D printing. In fact they have already made available all sorts of 4D printed items, and now are turning their attention to the possibilities that the technology could hold within large-scale adaptive structures.
The designers at Nervous System have looked towards these flowers and thought to themselves, what if it was possible to use the same concept seen within the blooming flower to create a 4D printed material on a much larger scale? In doing so, they’ve envisioned a future where a large flat structure, almost like a carpet, could be placed outdoors in an area where people commonly congregate, perhaps a park or a concert venue. This flat structure would be printed with multiple materials, all which have varying properties.
For instance, as seen in the lily, the outer edges of the structure, which they call the ‘Anthesis Pavilion,’ could be printed with a material
Depending on where the various materials are printed within the structure, and how those materials adapt to varying environmental elements, all sorts of applications could eventually be realized. We could soon be living in a world filled with objects which are printed relatively affordably and adapt to our needs on the fly.
Let’s hear your thoughts on this concept and how else such technology could be put to use. Discuss in the Nervous System 4D Printing forum thread on 3DPB.com.