eKuazioN: hydro-fold

5 dic 2012

hydro-fold

Hydro-Fold is a fascinating technique of folding that automatically begins to assume a three dimensional shape upon being printed from a normal ink jet machine. Invited by its Director Marva Griffin to the 15th anniversary of theSalone Satellite, on the theme “Design Technology”, the ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne) presents an installation by Christophe Guberan, a third-year Bachelor student of Industrial Design. “The idea is to give shape to paper through the simple use of water, adapting an existing printer to control the phenomenon.

Milan 2012: this inkjet printer has been adapted by Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) student Christophe Guberan to print patterns that contort pieces of paper into specific 3D forms.

The machine prints a mixture of water and ink that causes the paper to fold automatically along wet lines and humid areas.

It’s hooked up to a computer that can be used to generate patterns for different fold configurations.

Here are some more details from ECAL:

Hydro-Fold by ECAL/Christophe Guberan

Under the given topic «Design-Technology» we decided to present a very innovative yet extremely straight-forward project: Hydro-Fold.

Christophe Guberan, 3rd year Product Design student at the ECAL conceived and developed the Hydro-Fold project. It is a project combining modern technology (ink-jet printer) and a very well known and accessible material (paper)

Hydro-Fold is a project that aims to explore the properties of paper or how a liquid may bend its structure.

The project consists on bringing modifications on a simple contemporary desktop ink-jet printer by replacing the regular ink contained in the cartridge by a very specific mixture of ink and water.

Different patterns, grids and shapes can be printed on paper using this specific liquid. While drying, the paper contorts, folds and retracts around the printed and humid areas, transforming it self from a 2-dimensional paper sheet to a 3-dimensional structure where lines become edges and surfaces become volumes.]