New Delft Blue
Combining ceramic heritage and 3D printing innovation.
Summary
Client: BPD Ontwikkeling
Year: 2019-
Status: ongoing
Location: Delft, Netherlands
Partners: Vera Yanovshtchinsky architecten, Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum, IRS Robotics, KUKA Robotics
New Delft Blue is a pioneering project in the historic Dutch city of Delft that reinterprets the world-famous decorative qualities and design vocabulary of Delft Blue porcelain.
By fusing 3D clay printing, computational design and artisanal glazing, the architectural potential of ceramics and ornament the 21st century is revealed.
3D Ceramic Printing
The tiles will be 3D printed, which allows for the creation of approximately four thousand contemporary, rich and unique ceramic tiles that together make up the two gates. Using an algorithmic approach to 3D pattern design certain manufacturing constraints (maximum overhang, width, height and depth, shrinkage constraints and internal support structure) are taken into account when generating the geometry of the tiles. Because the tiles are 3D printed, applying variation in their shape is rather cheap.
By applying a runny glaze on white-burning clay portions of the tile that are convex (hills) will remain white as the blue glaze pools in the concave (valley) areas of the tile. This poetic method of 'painting with shape' allows for smooth transitions between hues of blue and white that are impossible to produce otherwise.
This project was realized at Studio RAP, which I founded and ran from 2014-2020.
All images are copyright © of Studio RAP.