London’s iconic Pure Historical past Museum will not be solely famed for its world-class exhibitions, it is usually probably the most elaborate and well-known buildings created from terracotta. Architect Alfred Waterhouse, who designed the constructing within the nineteenth century, wished to make use of the clay-based constructing materials as an alternative of extra typical stone as a result of it was more cost effective and labour intensive to work with in addition to extra resilient to the grime and air pollution of Victorian London. The custom of utilizing clay supplies within the constructing lives on within the museum’s latest everlasting gallery, Fixing Our Damaged Planet, by the mixing of show instances with 3D printed ceramic options.
Fixing Our Damaged Planet opened formally on April 3, 2025 and is the Pure Historical past Museum’s first everlasting gallery in over a decade. In different phrases, you may have loads of time to soak up the exhibition, in addition to the 3D printed design that has gone into it. The gallery’s design was spearheaded by the museum’s in-house workforce of architects, who have been trying to redesign the area in a approach that each paid homage to the unique structure and would have a minimal ecological impression. They even performed a research to evaluate the environmental footprint of assorted manufacturing and materials choices. Primarily based on the outcomes of this research, the structure workforce landed on robotic additive manufacturing and ceramic supplies as essentially the most sustainable path.
The 3D printing was carried out in partnership with LAMÁQUINA, a Barcelona-based 3D printing service that leveraged WASP’s robotic AM expertise to create a sequence of clay buildings. With sustainability as a key aim, the fabric used was composed of 40% recycled clay derived from the ceramics trade. The 3D printed elements within the gallery embody 1,686 particular person items (made in below three months!) based mostly on ten module designs. These items have been assembled in varied combos to type the bases of show instances and benches across the gallery. Notably, a few of the 3D printed elements built-in technical options, like holes for cables or signage.
“Simply as the selection of terracotta was a contextual response to the wants of its time, the design of this new gallery displays at the moment’s priorities,” writes LAMÁQUINA. “One key technique is using 3D printing ceramics for show instances, which enabled assembly all of the calls for of the brand new gallery whereas respecting the stringent measures of working in a heritage web site with out interfering with the unique structure.”
Considered one of these stringent measures stipulated that nothing may contact the partitions of the historic constructing or impose level masses above 400 kg, which meant a lot planning went into not solely the design of the show instances, but additionally their set up, a course of that was finally accomplished in simply 10 days. In the long run, the brick-like ceramic buildings operate as the inspiration for the brand new gallery, making a bridge between pure supplies like clay and technological improvements like 3D printing, particularly becoming within the context of the gallery’s mission which “explores sensible, nature-based options to a few of the largest challenges dealing with the planet at the moment.”
