Custom Architectural Lighting through 3D Printing

By now, many of us have seen the news from around the globe showing off innovative homes built almost entirely by 3D printers. These massive printers are utilized in either fabrication warehouses or are brought directly to the construction site where the printer's robotic arm sweeps left and right repeatedly, depositing the material for the home's walls layer by layer. This concept has many benefits in terms of time, cost of materials and labor for constructing buildings. However, another-and possibly greater-advantage of 3D printing for building construction lies in the ability to fabricate interior architectural features and to integrate and customize these features, including lighting. At Rensselaer's Lighting Research Center, we recently embarked on a project to demonstrate a 3D-printed interior architecture with integrated lighting.