serinal – Looking Outwards 03 (section C)

Trussfab is an extremely cool platform, created by Robert Kovacs and his HCI team at Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany, that allows users to design something that can be fabricated into large structures using recycled bottles and 3D printed joints.

Personally, I think the very coolest part of this is that the user doesn’t need to have any outstanding knowledge on engineering or have certain materials/equipment, but still can produce these large structures. You design your structure via Trussfab and then they will generate all the 3D files for all the hinges and joints that are needed to complete the structure.

The idea of Trussfab being an easy to use platform for people to create structures and prototype different things is really great. What is even cooler is how much you can manipulate the structure (with decorations, small details, etc) and the fact that it can even support human weight. I am extremely interested in seeing where this will take a lot of designers and architects with their ideas and whether or not it will become a part of some people’s practices.

I am not completely sure what the algorithms for the actual Trussfab extension are, but I am sure that there was a lot of complex thinking behind it. Robert Kovacs and his HCI team are definitely more into the background, the actual algorithm and the coding that goes into it, because it is meant to serve the artistic sensibilities of other people. I think it’s really cool because it directly relates to design being a “service industry” and they have created a platform that conveys this idea. I am excited to see the future of Trussfab.

Read more about Trussfab via this article!