Deciduous: A 3D Printed Pavilion
Deciduous was a pavilion built at DIFC, Dubai, in 2019, made from three materials: a robotically 3D printed concrete base, a CNC-milled birch floor and branching 3D printed stems of PET upcycled from 30,000 water bottles.
Building on MEAN*’s experiments with 3D printing in design, the pavilion scales these processes up to architecture.
In the context of Dubai’s 3D Printing Strategy, launched in 2016, the pavilion was a first attempt to combine robotic 3D printing in plastic and concrete and test what the two technologies can do together, contributing to the emirate’s vision of ecological construction growth towards 2025.
Deciduous was designed in interconnected parts, fully prefabricated off site and joined mechanically on a clean site without heavy machinery. Computational modeling set the level of detail to what large-format robotic 3D printing can achieve.
In botany, ‘deciduous’ describes trees that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn. Celebrating the 2019 ‘Art Nights’ event at DIFC with the theme ‘Autumn’, Deciduous asked what autumn means to Dubai residents.
DIFC Art Nights, By Day And Night