Desert Tectonics

The research hereby proposed illustrates the project of a 3D printed facade shading system for a service pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. Through computational design the facade concept, consisting in horizontal lamellas in the shape of waves with a complex geometry generation, has been optimized for additive manufacturing. At first many tests have been conducted on polymeric printable materials, through a climatic chamber in Politecnico di Milano, to ensure material performances and durability at high temperatures. Then a campaign of digital fabrication tests has been started to optimize, simultaneously, the shape of the facade and the printing settings (such as retraction value, layer height, speed). The printing tests have been held at WASP, in Massa Lombarda, through a 3MT printer with a pellet extruder allowing large scale production and reduced printing time. Keywords: additive manufacturing, 3d printed façade, computational design, advanced customized design, digital fabrication, material testing