Taisei Manheim – Looking Outward – 03

The project I chose was Coded Clay by Brian Peters, a former architecture professor at Carnegie Mellon University.  As an architecture student I appreciate how he used architectural software such as Rhino and Grasshopper to parametrically design intricate pottery.  He starts by hand sketching the design that he wants and then he creates a custom Grasshopper script to design the movements of the 3D printer. The 3D printer was custom made by him in order to use clay and the tiny zig-zag movements with the path of the machine give the sense of the pottery being woven.  Once printed, the pieces have to dry for several days and then they are fired in a kiln twice, once before glazing and once afterwards. The idea for Coded Clay came from Brian Peter’s time in the Netherlands where he worked on 3D printing with clay within an architecture firm in Amsterdam.