LIVING
SUPPORTS
Without going too far into technicalities, when you need to print something in 3D you have to take into account overhangs above 45 degrees. In fact, in the case that this eventuality occurs or the shape to be printed is particularly complex, the software will automatically generate supports. These supports are essential for the success of the print that without them would fail or would be full of flaws.
Once these supports have finished printing, they are obviously removed and then thrown away with a consumption of plastic.
The “Living Supports” project was born from the desire to avoid such waste, highlighting and enhancing these supports that have their own beauty. Depending on the software used we can find several, such as simple pillars or cylinders or even more complex and with the possibility of being modified, like those used by me, present in the Meshmixer software.
In combination with this production waste, present exclusively in the production process of 3D printing, I decided to add another waste, whether plastic or aluminum, difficult for the environment to be disposed of, but that with this process takes on a new value, a new meaning, able to furnish our homes in an interesting and eco-sustainable way.
Two scraps, then, that give life to a new object, vases to be precise, that from being thrown away as garbage are reborn under a new guise with this project that wants to put an exclamation point on what the man is doing to the environment.
A vase, icon of our times, exemplification of a humanity that ruins nature with its behavior, a unique project that wants to ask several questions, also trying to give answers and design solutions to what is happening around us.
