French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani has assembled a structure from 700 bioplastic bricks in the courtyard of a 16th-century palazzo, as this year's Milan design week installation for fashion brand COS.
Mamou-Mani ? whose previous projects include a temple for Burning Man festival ? wanted to show how design can be more circular, by harnessing the potential of renewable materials and sustainable processes.
The result is a large-scale parametric structure made up of modular bio-bricks, each 3D-printed in a mixture of polylactic acid (PLA) ? a fully compostable bioplastic that is made using renewable resources ? and wood. They are secured together using PLA cable ties.
Conifera is made from 700 bioplastic bricks
"Technology alone doesn't really matter, it's what you do with it, and to me it's only interesting if we are helping the planet," Mamou-Mani told Dezeen. "I wanted the piece to echo the circular nature of the compostable material and create a journey from architecture to nature in order to showcase how renewable materials, coupled with an algorithmic approach and distributed 3D printing, can create the building blocks of the future," he said.
It is installed in Palazzo Isimbardi for Milan design week
The 30-metre-long installation, Conifera, is on show in the courtyard of Palazzo Isimbardi in Milan from 9 to 14 April as part of the city's annual design week.
Three colours feature across the installation, ranging from clear and white to orange and ...