conversation with Nagami

Tell me about Nagami: the background and the concept.

I run a research cluster at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (London). Since 2013, we have been experimenting with design methods using robotic fabrication, one of those being large scale 3D Printing. We used the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) commonly present in desktop 3D printers and developed our own tools to adapt to industrial robots. This would allow us to increase the scale of our prototypes, as well as to speed up the printing process.

In 2016, we were commissioned by the Centre Pompidou for a piece that would materialize that research into a chair. We embarked on that project and used it as an excuse to create a company that would increase robustness in the 3D printing process. We released “Voxel Chair v1.0” in 2017 - a piece of research co-developed by my research lab at The Bartlett and Nagami. Since then, we’ve been creating a large variety of objects - some of those developed in collaboration with renowned designers and architects, such as Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects.

Nagami’s goal is to advance design and 3D printing technology so that we can build objects in a much more sustainable way, establishing a circular economy. Any waste that we produce can be re-inserted in the production cycle. And by increasing the scale and demand for 3D printed objects, we also speed up the cleaning process of our coastlines, accelerating the elimination of plastic waste on our planet. So the more Nagami grows, the faster plastic waste is converted into beautiful objects.

What’s really unique about your 3D printing?

There are different kinds of 3D printing methods with completely different processes. But what primarily differentiates them is the presence or absence of support material. The most commonly known 3D printers use the FDM process, which melts filaments of plastic and extrudes a very thin tool-path. So the resulting object is made up of a conglomeration of contoured individual lines.

Our extrusion method scales up that process. Instead of working with filament, we use plastic pellets. This reduces material costs and makes the process much more sustainable, since we skip the process of transforming raw plastic into filament. Then, instead of printing very thin layers, we print up to 10mm contours, leading to a much faster production. By reducing the toolpath length, this allows us to print a chair in three or four hours. It is important to take into account that this method also becomes a constraint. We always design shapes that can sustain themselves without the use of supporting material. We try to take those as opportunities for designing differently for this technology. We also developed our own plastic extruder, which is now in its fifth version. Our extruder seamlessly responds to the software that we develop, increasing robustness in the printing process and ultimately increasing the quality of our products.

You have worked with many designers or received requests from designers who may not all have an understanding of 3D printing. What is the process of 3D printing collaboration?

We do receive plenty of requests for forms and shapes that are just not natural to 3D printing - that would be a very forced marriage in between design and technology. It is critical to understand the technology you intend to work with when starting the design process, considering the limitations and opportunities that technology offers.

There are several ways in which we collaborate with other designers. First, our team prioritizes the designers that actually understand 3D printing technology, including its limitations and boundaries. When our team receives a request, we normally start the conversation with a disclaimer - “3D printing is not an ultimate tool to build absolutely anything. It has its limitations”. This encourages designers to understand and acknowledge not only the opportunities of 3D printing, but also its constraints before starting envisioning a new design.

Next, we evaluate designers’ requests based on their creativity. We especially love projects that could bring objects to life that were impossible to materialize with traditional manufacturing methods. Once both parties feel comfortable with the collaboration, we embark ourselves in a journey in which we work as a team to bring exceptional designs to life.

Is there any limitation you would like to break?

Well, we are pushing the limits of large-scale 3D printing every day. We tend to have a research and development component in every project we work on. In fact, each object that we develop introduces something experimental to the field of 3D printing. For example, printing with two robots simultaneously, controlling color and opacity gradients is something that has become one of Nagami’s signatures. We also constantly work on smoothing the communication between software and hardware, to print faster and more efficiently.We are trying to break the limitation of printing large objects. We are printing 3.5 meters tall sculptures in 48 hours and entire pavilions which integrate furniture and many of the construction layers into one single 3D printed body.

In short, we’re always trying to re-think design and construction at every level. Every project is a challenge for us to break conventions.

You recently collaborated with the fashion designer Yvan Andreu. What are your thoughts about 3D printing in fashion?

I believe it’s the first time that robotic 3D printing was used for fashion objects. Most of the 3D printed clothing nowadays come from smaller size printers with Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technologies (e.g. Iris van Herpen). As for us, we want to experiment with processes that are faster, cheaper and more efficient in fashion. That’s a huge difference from SLS printing (smaller size printing), which is a really expensive process (mainly in haute couture). Although we expect 3D printing costs to decrease in the future, it is still a very experimental process in the fashion world.

Do you think 3D printing can print soft material in the future?

Many of the examples I mentioned before are actually made out of soft materials. However, soft materials are much more difficult to control on a larger scale. When it comes to a larger volume, the material is far less stable. But we’re getting there. Some successful experiments are coming out from academic research, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) printing biomaterials that support softer tissues such as muscles and tendons.

What is your vision for Nagami?

I hope to see Nagami using 3D printing to explore all kinds of products such as furniture and architecture that were previously impossible to materialize with older manufacturing methods. 3D printing can open doors to these products manifesting in unbelievable new ways.

More importantly, we want to develop sustainable modes of production into the design industry. 3D printing establishes a short yet versatile production chain. Rather than having multiple machines manufacturing one serialized product, we have one machine that manufactures not only an infinite number of variations, but also produces the right amount based on demand. That is an incredible opportunity; we are not only creating every product without huge initial investment costs, but also stay more agile to shift from one product to another in response to the demand. This is something that the design industry just couldn’t have done efficiently before.

But we are also thinking of plastic waste and different ways to develop technologies to recycle them into our 3D printing materials. We want to make a positive contribution to the world and turn what was once scrap into beautiful and groundbreaking objects.

Tell me “Something New”.

There are plenty of new things happening in the design and tech world every day, but only a few have a lasting impact. Rather than just starting something new, I want to create something relevant that will really make a difference. I often observe how companies rethink the design process - anything from automotive manufacturing, architecture or aerospace - and explore how to take their concepts to benefit our reality. In a nutshell, don’t just create something new but push for it until it becomes real.