Re-establishing the way traditional techniques were used to produce metal objects this project explores the possibilities of metal casting cats in 3D sand-printed molds. Specifically, aluminum is cast in detailed and custom-made molds produced with a Binder Jet printer. The cast artifacts function as joints between off-shelf aluminum rods that come together in a three-dimensional space frame.

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The concept for the joint design is to form ‘a bone structure’ around the nodes of the spaceframe which facilitates the assembly process as each rod can extend beyond its insertion point for easier assembly.

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For each node of the joint at least three connections with other rods are established for better stability and rigidity. As a final step, the ornamentation on the joints is achieved through a mesh subdivision script.

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The complexity of such emergent objects attests to their sculptural and visual quality. Without digital fabrication, such complex connections demand extreme resources to be produced. However, mold production is now automated through a computational process that allows their direct fabrication with Binder Jetting technology.  The visual language of a shifted space frame with these purpose-made connections is unique and born within the computational process that embeds assembly and fabrication of non standard structures.

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