Shoreline
Group - RMIT Graduate Student - March to June 2024
I designed a set of 3 concrete 3D-printed benches with one team member for the City of Melbourne’s Fishermans Bend urban renewal project in Wirraway along Plummer Street and the JL Murphy Reserve.
My team member and I presented this design to instructors and a member of the Fisherman’s Bend urban renewal project.
We developed our design language from the inspiration of fluid dynamics, as Wirraway was originally comprised of sand dunes. Furthermore, this area also contained the factories that manufactured Wirraway planes.
After we explored the 2D curvature of patterns we found while inspecting fluid dynamics, we then used a nature-inspired design approach to create initial 3D forms. We utilized sand collected from the beach and carved our designs into the sand as molds to create plaster castings of prospective designs.
I created our final designs in Rhino using Grasshopper to parametrically define the curves of the furniture.
We planned to 3D print the center of the benches vertically, so I ensured the Grasshopper code would not allow for an overhang of more than 15 degrees, the outer limit for concrete 3D printers.
Preliminary design.
Secondary design.
Final design.
Our preliminary design did not have any inner support structure, so we added inner supports to our secondary design. After strength testing our secondary design, we added further support to our final design to ensure it would be strong enough to support itself and the individuals using the bench.
While we printed the main components of the bench vertically, we printed the ends of our bench horizontally to allow for an enclosed space to be used as a planter and water run-off containment area.
While we printed the main components of the bench vertically, we printed the ends of our bench horizontally to allow for an enclosed space to be used as a planter and water run-off containment area.
Bench end components.
While prototyping the form of the benches, we continued our exploration of fluid dynamics by ensuring there was no chance for water to pool in our final design, as the image on the left shows. Instead, we made sure any rain that falls on our benches would flow off the bench as shown on the right.
The designs were 3D printed and showcased at a design exhibition.
We also proposed further iterations of our design for future exploration that could include other functional components, such as a bike rack.
Plummer Street will become the main source of activity and flow through Sandridge and Wirraway. As such, our focal area to place our furniture will be along Plummer Street within the JL Murphy Reserve.
I developed the 3D model of our site location using Rhino.
I developed the 3D model of our site location using Rhino.