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As a Designer Architect with a robust background in mechanical engineering and a mature passion for the arts, I have gradually made the transition from moonlighting in jewelry design to becoming a full-fledged craftsman of artisan jewelry.

Upon completion of my degree in architecture, I came to the realization that, while working on school projects imposes minimal limitations on creativity and innovation, opportunities for such innovation in the professional world are few and far between due to current limitations on technology and material, as well as the high costs of production.  Simply put, while it is easy to design complex shapes and curves in CAD programs, the actual manufacture of custom curves as unique as snowflakes is currently by no means cheap. We are thus condemned to careers enslaved by cookie-cutter architectural formulas for cost effectiveness.This is why many, if not most, buildings we see today are... well, boxes.  Complex curvature in architecture is banished from ubiquity, and both the yearning visionary architect and the inhabitants themselves are prisoners trapped in a literal box.

 

As Zaha Hadid, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect once said, “The world is not a rectangle,”  famously insisting that “You don't go into a park and complain 'My God, we don't have any corners!'”

 

3D printing technology, however, is the emerging breakthrough that can transform this approach to architecture from being confined to the drawing board into being just as economical—if not more so—than traditional box architecture.  With advanced 3D printing technology on the rise today, we can begin designing buildings which revolutionize the way our work environment looks and feels, and create architecture which both gels with and compliments the natural beauty of the world outside.  What's more, such technology will make this new way of architecture not only more customizable, but also more affordable, fast, and efficient.  That is to say, 3D printing in architecture will put the best of both worlds within our reach, and will be more than a niche method in construction—it will be the new industry standard.  Although we are in the midst of mere baby steps, these baby steps are blazing the way toward a day where these technologies are fully implementable.

As a recent graduate student I am not able to develop this technology on my own with the limited resources that I currently have—I must, sadly, devote a great deal of my time toward making ends meet. Yet, as an architect I have learned to scale things down when a problem is too complicated, and bring it to a manageable size and only then work my way up. However, scaling down architecture has brought me to the field of jewelry design, a field which has allowed me to experience 3D printing design in small scales.  It is through jewelry design that I intend on moving towards the mastery and full exploitation of the capabilities of 3D printing.