Flatbed Printing
The distinction between representation and building is fundamental for architects. But images make up a larger and larger part of the built environment: printed signs, billboards, construction netting, and building facades.
Printed cork and aluminum
These images are made possible by new thin substrates, adhesive and ink technologies, and widely available large format, flat-bed printers.
The coplanarity of image and building material suggests not only new architectural capacities but new modes of construction, tectonic systems, and assembly details.
Working with industry partners and students at SCI-Arc, FreelandBuck fabricated a series of large, printed objects that function as both image substrates and architectural assemblies. They were exhibited in the 2021 exhibition Views from the Field at the SCI-Arc Gallery in Los Angeles.
Printed samples using four different substrate materials (clockwise from upper left): aluminum, mirror, wood veneer, cement board
Inlaid panels before printing
Inlaid panels after printing
Project Team: Luiza De Souza, Moriah Haley, Cole Masuno, Zane Mechem, Ken Mishima
Original Photographs Courtesy of SOM
Copyright Orlando R. Cabanban, William Lukes, Ezra Stoller I /Esto