Biodigital Product Design Through Additive Fabrication Technologies: Stool Project

Abstract

Designers and architects have widely used references from nature for their projects; bioinformed design has had a significant evolution in recent decades, largely thanks to digital technologies advantages, especially digital fabrication and parametric software. This text presents the process of design, experimentation and materialization of a stool based on three-dimensional patterns extracted from nature. The project followed this methodological sequence (1) Selection of biological referents (2) Morphologic synthesis (3) Compression test (4) Analysis of thicknesses and stress (5) Fabrication of 1:1 scale prototype through Fused Deposition Modelling technology -FDM-(6) User testing (7) Conclusions and improvement proposal. The 1:1 scale prototype fabrication process presented various challenges in terms of dimensions, printing times and costs. Finally, the prototype demonstrated that it is possible to materialize functional and resistant objects through FDM; the proposed goals were achieved in the context of a valuable experience, as a result of a transdisciplinary collaboration.