Saltygloo

source: emergingobjects

The Saltygloo is an experiment in 3-D printing using locally harvested salt from the San Francisco Bay to produce a large-scale, lightweight, additive manufactured structures. The Saltygloo takes its clues from the Inuit Igloo, both in form and concept. In the landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area natural power from the sun and wind, produce 500000 tonnes of sea salt each year.

The salt is harvested from 109-year-old salt crystallization ponds in Redwood City. These ponds are the final stop in a five-year salt-making process that involves moving bay water through a series of evaporation ponds. In these ponds the highly saline water completes evaporation, leaving 8-12 inches of solid crystallized salt that is then harvested for industrial use. From this landscape, a new kind of architecture is theorized and created through the lens of 3D printing and computer-aided design. The Saltygloo is made of a combination of salt harvested from the San Francisco Bay and glue, a “salty glue”, which makes an ideal 3D printing material, one that is strong, waterproof, lightweight, translucent and inexpensive.

To build the Saltygloo, 336 translucent panels were 3D printed using this unique material invention. Each panel recalls the crystalline form of salt and is randomly rotated and aggregated to create a larger structure where all tiles in the structure are unique.

The form of the Saltygloo is drawn from the forms found in the Inuit Igloos, but also the shapes and forms of tools and equipment found in the ancient process of boiling brine.

The panels are connected together to form a rigid shell that is further supported with lightweight aluminum rods flexed in tension, making the structure extremely lightweight and able to be easily transported assembled in only a few hours.

The translucent qualities of the material, a product of the fabrication process and the natural properties of salt, allow for natural light to permeate the space and highlight the assembly and structure and reveal the unique qualities of one of humankind’s most essential minerals.

Project Date: 2013
Design Team: Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello, Seong Koo Lee.
Fabrication Team: Ronald Rael, Seong Koo Lee, Eleftheria Stavridi
Material Development: Ronald Rael, Mark Kelly, Kent Wilson
Special Thanks: Professor Mark Ganter, Solheim Lab, University of Washington, Ehren Tool, Department of Art Practice, University of California Berkeley, Department of Architecture, University of California Berkeley, Department of Design, San Jose State University, Kwang Min Ryu and Chaewoo Rhee.
Additional Information: The Saltygloo will be on display at the Museum of Craft and Design for the show New West Coast Design 2 from opening October 26, 2013 through January 5, 2014.
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source: emergingobjects

Mission
Emerging Objects is a pioneering design and research company founded by two architects, Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, whose goal is to print architecture by specializing in designing and 3D printing assemblies for the built environment using custom materials and processes.

About
Our research and designs focus on the development of innovative materials for large format 3D printing, expanding the potential of additive manufacturing to serve the fields of architecture, interior design, furniture design and product design. Our design research has served as the foundation for our consulting projects and we work with a range of industrial partners, nonprofit foundations and creative practices.

Vision
Emerging Objects is interested in the creation of 3D printed architecture, building components and furnishings that can be seen as sustainable, inexpensive, stronger, smarter, recyclable, customizable and perhaps even reparable to the environment. We want to 3D print long-lasting performance-based designs for the built environment using raw materials that have strength, tactility, cultural associations, relevance and beauty.

Because the inherent nature of 3D printing opens new possibilities for shaping materials, this process will reshape the way we as a society think about manufacturing and construction. Though rapid manufacturing, geometries can be created that would be impossible to create by hand or require expensive machinery to produce or reproduce. Because additive manufacturing requires no dies or molds, products can be mass-customized, employing the flexibility of computer-aided manufacturing systems, rather than mass- produced, allowing design parameters to be quick. 3D printing is also a fabrication method that minimizes waste which makes it an environmentally conscious method of manufacturing.]
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source: dezeen

American studio Emerging Objects 3D-printed this pavilion using salt harvested from San Francisco Bay (+ slideshow).

“The structure is an experiment in 3D printing using locally harvested salt from the San Francisco Bay to produce a large-scale, lightweight, additive manufactured structures,” said Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello of additive manufacturing startup Emerging Objects.

They explained that 500,000 tonnes of sea salt are harvested each year in the San Francisco Bay Area using power from the sun and wind. “The salt is harvested from 109-year-old salt crystallisation ponds in Redwood City,” they said. “These ponds are the final stop in a five-year salt-making process that involves moving bay water through a series of evaporation ponds. In these ponds the highly saline water completes evaporation, leaving 8-12 inches of solid crystallised salt that is then harvested for industrial use.”

In addition to being a renewable resource, the salt is inexpensive compared to commercially available printing materials and creates strong lightweight components.

They claim that their pavilion is the first to be printed from salt but draws on traditional techniques for building with the material. “No one has ever 3D-printed a building out of salt,” Rael told Dezeen. “However, there is a long tradition of architecture constructed of salt blocks, particularly in the Middle East and in desert environments.”

The 336 unique translucent panels of the Saltygloo structure were made in a powder-based 3D printing process where a layer of salt is applied then fixed in place selectively with a binding agent, before the next layer of salt is deposited and the process is repeated.

The panels were then connected together to form a rigid shell, further supported with lightweight aluminium rods flexed in tension.

“Each panel recalls the crystalline form of salt and is randomly rotated and aggregated to create a larger structure where all tiles in the structure are unique,” explained the designers.

The form of the Saltygloo is drawn from the forms found in the Inuit igloos, but also the shapes and forms of tools and equipment found in the ancient process of boiling brine,” they added. “The translucent qualities of the material, a product of the fabrication process and the natural properties of salt, allow for natural light to permeate the space, highlight the assembly and structure, and reveal the unique qualities of one of humankind’s most essential minerals.”

Rael and San Fratello are professors of architecture and design at the University of California Berkeley and San Jose State University. They founded Emerging Objects six months to focus on printing architecture from a diverse set of materials, largely renewable or sources from industrial waste, including some they have developed themselves.

Besides salt, they are also working in 3D-printed wood, cement and paper, adapting old models of 3D-printers to suit their materials and processes. “Emerging Objects is interested in the creation of 3D printed architecture, building components and furnishings that can be seen as sustainable, inexpensive, stronger, smarter, recyclable, customisable and perhaps even reparable to the environment,” they explain.

The Saltygloo pavilion follows a piece of furniture printed in the same way and the firm is now gearing up to produce a large-scale architectural room. “We see possibilities to create building enclosures and building cladding systems, as well as free standing walls using the salt material,” Rael told us.

The project is on display at the Museum of Craft Design as part of an exhibition called New West Coast Design 2 until 5 January 2014.

Design team: Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello, Seong Koo Lee.
Fabrication team: Ronald Rael, Seong Koo Lee, Eleftheria Stavridi
Material development: Ronald Rael, Mark Kelly, Kent Wilson
Special thanks: Professor Mark Ganter, Solheim Lab, University of Washington, Ehren Tool, Department of Art Practice, University of California Berkeley, Department of Architecture, University of California Berkeley, Department of Design, San Jose State University, Kwang Min Ryu and Chaewoo Rhee.
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source: designfaves

Produced by Emerging Objects, ‘Saltygloo’ is an installation of 3D printed salt tiles. The material is formed from a combination of adhesive and salt that was harvested from the San Francisco Bay. Referencing the shape of an Inuit Igloo, the installation is constructed from 336 interlocking panels that are supported by an aluminum armature. Saltygloo will be on display at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design through January 5th.

Emerging Objects specializes in using innovative materials for 3D printing. In addition to salt, the company has experimented with alternative materials such as cement polymer, nylon, acrylic and wood.

Commenting on their use of salt, the company shared, “The translucent qualities of the material, a product of the fabrication process and the natural properties of salt, allow for natural light to permeate the space and highlight the assembly and structure and reveal the unique qualities of one of humankind’s most essential minerals.”
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source: catalogodiseno

El estudio de diseño e investigación basado en la ciudad norteamericana de Oakland (Bahía de San Francisco) Emerging Objects es un startup que se especializa en el desarrollo de superficies de impresión 3d para producir objetos y soluciones espaciales que integren procesos de fabricación de bajo impacto.
Saltygloo , el ”Igloo de sal” es uno de los últimos proyectos del estudio. Diseñado por sus Co-Fundadores Ronald Rael y Virginia San Fratello, la estructura es un experimento de impresión 3D, inspirada en la forma del ”Inuit Igloo”, que utiliza sal recolectada en la Bahía de San Francisco como materia prima abundante y de bajo costo.

El viento y el sol convierten el paisaje de la Bahía en el lugar perfecto para la producción de 500.000 toneladas de sal de mar cada año. El proceso comienza en la ciudad de Redwood City, ubicada en la misma bahía, donde se extrae sal de 109 años de edad desde sus estanques de cristalización. En estos estanques se produce la parada final de un proceso de producción de 5 años que implica mover agua de la bahía a través de una serie de lagunas de evaporación. En estos estanques, el agua altamente salina, completa su evporación dejando de 8 a 12 pulgadas de sal cristalizada que se recolecta para uso industrial.

Estanques de Sal Bahía de San Francisco.
Es a partir de esta producción que Ronald y Virginia sueñan con un nuevo tipo de material para dar forma a espacios creados a partir de la impresión 3D y el diseño asistido por computador. El Saltygloo esta fabricado a partir 336 paneles o módulos que combinan sal de la bahía de San Francisco con pegamento, un ”pegamento salado” como le llaman ellos. El material es ideal para ser utilizado en impresión 3D, es fuerte, liviano, translúcido y de bajo costo.
Los paneles están conectados entre sí para formar una estructura rígida que está reforzada con varillas de aluminio flexionadas en tensión, haciendo que la estructura sea extremadamente liviana y capaz de ser montada fácilmente.

Diseño: Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello y Seong Koo Lee.
Fabricación: Ronald Rael, Seong Koo Lee y Eleftheria Stavridi
Desarrollo: Ronald Rael, Mark Kelly y Kent Wilson
Agradecimientos: Profesor Mark Ganter, Solheim Lab, Universidad de Washington, Ehren Tool, Departamento de Art Practice Universidad de California Berkeley, Departmento de Arquitectura Universidad de California Berkeley y Departmento de Diseño San Jose State University.