3D printing has been in the news for years now. However, it was not until my second year of undergraduate school that I used it for the very first time on a project. I was fascinated by the ability to create all kinds of custom made items on the spot.

Since its invention in 1983, 3D printing has expanded into many fields and produces a wide range of things. We can 3D print everything from simple toys and clothes to tools. There are also studies about using this technology in medical fields for printing body parts! The potential seems limitless.

Here are a few applications that I found interesting.

Dinara Kasko is a Ukrainian architect and pastry chef who is merging baking with geometric and architectural design using graphic algorithm editor Grasshopper and 3D printers. Her pastry work is often inspired by other artists and architects. In search of a niche in the field, Kasko seeks to link "pastry and architecture" through geometric form and careful composition.

In its finished form, this Kasko cake resembles a schematic model of contemporary architecture. However, instead of being made with steel, concrete, or glass, it is made of meringue, gelatin, and chocolate.

Iris van Herpen, a Dutch designer, has two 3D-printed suits in her 11-piece portfolio, including an elaborate hemline and cape created in collaboration with Neri Oxman (an artist, architect, designer, and professor at the MIT Media Lab) and a 3D print from printer manufacturer Stratasys.

“I feel it’s important that fashion can be about much more than consumerism, but also about new beginnings and self-expression, so my work very much comes from abstract ideas and using new techniques, not the re-invention of old ideas. I find the process of 3D printing fascinating because I believe it will only be a matter of time before we see the clothing we wear today produced with this technology, and it’s because it’s such a different way of manufacturing, adding layer-by-layer, it will be a great source of inspiration for new ideas.”

— Van Herpen

Kyttanen: This couch is called Sofa So Good and was created using 3DSystem's ProX 950 (industrial-grade, large-capacity SLA 3D printer). Kyttanen's design allows recliners to be printed with as little material as possible while maintaining structural strength.

The single print design uses only 2.5 liters of resin, equivalent to 6,000 layers. It is 1.5 meters long and weighs only 2.5 kilograms. According to its designers, these loungers can support up to 100 kilograms.

WASP, an Italian developer of 3D printing technology, WASP, built this house to demonstrate the capabilities of the Crane WASP, a modular 3D printer that can create structures in a variety of formats and sizes. The houses are printed using a natural mud mixture made from soil taken from surrounding sites and waste products from rice production, such as shredded straw and rice husks.

A 3D printer suspended from a crane was used to layer the mixture to form walls with vertical cavities inside, which were then filled with rice husks to insulate them. Rice husks are also used to make plaster to cover the inner walls of the structure and to create an insulating layer on the roof.

While 3D printing technology has been around for a while, it is not yet part of our everyday lives. Yet, there are professionals from different fields (designers, scientists, engineers, doctors) who are utilizing it as a tool to improve our lives. 3D printed body parts might sound crazy today, but who thought 25 years ago that everyone would have a mini computer phone in their pocket?

So…what’s next?

Jessie Fangzhou Ji.

Interesting 3D Printing Projects You Never Thought About

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