3D printing Feature

Shape of things to come

3D printing is attracting a lot of attention, but is it really feasible that it will become commonplace on live projects? CM convened a panel of experts to explore the possibilities. Elaine Knutt reports. Photographs by James Winspear

IT WON’T HAVE ESCAPED the attention of CM readers that 3D printing is having a bit of a “moment”. In the papers or online, there’s a profusion of headlines: “NASA 3D prints rocket parts”; “New Vista print head could allow surgeons to print human organs”; “US Navy prints spare parts at sea”; “First 3D printing bureau opens on London’s Oxford Street”. Not to mention the latest acquisition at London’s V&A museum... All of this naturally raises multiple

questions about 3D printing buildings and components. To debate the issue, CM assembled a panel of experts and interested onlookers: George Lee runs a modelmaking 3D print bureau; Dan Culling of Skanska and Jeff Carter of BAM Design believe they could be using 3D printing in the not-too-distant future; lawyer May Looi ICIOB has both a professional and personal interest in the subject; and design management consultant John Eynon FCIOB sees it as a logical extension of BIM and 3D design. The group is to meet Sylvain Preumont,

a French entrepreneur who runs iMakr, London’s first high-street 3D print shop. Visit iMakr and you immediately grasp some of the contradictions inherent in 3D printing. Demand for the bespoke mobile phone cases and plasticky objects on display would seem to be limited — why

print what can be cheaply mass produced anyway? But the very fact that iMakr exists — selling affordable entry-level 3D printers for innovators and designers to experiment with — does suggest that 3D printing is on an acceleratory phase of its development curve. A curve that could lead us to... well,

over to John Eynon: “It’s the emerging technology but it could be as ground- changing as when PCs came out. It could change the construction industry and the retail industry too. You can download what you want, pay a royalty fee and make it. Why ship materials all the way from China, when you have them on site? You take out all the travel costs and carbon, destroy the supply chain and the design industry, and create a different industry!” he finishes. Preumont, not surprisingly, was also an

evangelist. “Schools are buying printers, architects are buying them and I am selling people their second printers because they want an upgrade. People are using them to print adapters or modifications of existing equipment that just isn’t available any other way. But we’re still waiting for the ‘killer app’, the product that makes 3D printing a must.” The others are also enthused by the

potential, aware of experimental projects on university campuses that could cross

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George Lee: owner, Lee 3D print bureau

Dan Culling: project engineer, Skanska

Jeff Carter: assoc architect, BAM Design

May Looi ICIOB: Solicitor, Kennedys

John Eynon FCIOB: Open Water Consulting

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | OCTOBER 2013 | 23