4-D Printing

3-D printing lately has made a few headlines, and shows a lot of promise for the future of design. But what most people are not talking about is 4-D printing. Skylar Tibbits did a   TED Talk on “The emergence of “4-D printing.” What is 4-D printing you may ask? 4-D printing is when you print an object from a 3-D printer yet it assembles itself. “Self-Assembly is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through only local interaction.” The parts are printed with multi-material properties that can transform into an object. There is no human interactions. So one example he gives is pipes under ground that control water. In todays world if the pipes need to be changed you have to dig up the pipes and change them. But what if the pipe could change shape, that way you don’t have put new pipes in. Skylar also gave another example by using this technique to build in space. I came up with the idea that maybe furniture could be built this way. But besides these examples I am not sure what we could use this new technology for. Maybe I am not thinking outside the box enough but I’ve tried to come up with other real world applications for it. And I don’t see the need for it. The idea is really interesting and should definitely be pushed.