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Solanopolis

Part 2 Project 2014
Mihail-Andrei Jipa
University of Westminster | UK
Solanopolis (the Potato City)
from the Latin name of the potato plant - solanum tuberosum - and the Greek p???? [pólis] meaning city;

Solanopolis is an anticipative proposal for a 3D printed city set in the near future, speculating around a radical futuristic vision and implementing recursive geometries and 3D printing technologies to create an additively fabricated city whose design emerges directly from the underlying complex number fractlas stored as a parametric algorithm in the firmware of the building robotic printers. The resulting architectural image has an infinite fractal complexity that echoes the implicit mathematical beauty found in the sinuous vaults of Baroque architecture.
In order to physically recreate prototypes of these proposals, a new fused deposition modelling 3D printing technique was developed, parameterizing the code sent to the 3D printer, which was publicly shared with the world as an open-source method as the first small step towards the construction of Solanopolis.
The project is set against post-apocalyptic narrative of an emerging culture and economy based around hydroponically grown tubers and turning potato starch into bio-plastics used by the array of networked large scale delta 3D printers that continuously add layers to the city in a race against global-warming and the rising ocean levels.


Mihail-Andrei Jipa

Tutor(s)


2014
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