Case Study #1: 3D Printing Technology Enables International Architecture Firm to Shave Months off of Model-Building Time

Rietveld Architects
New York City, New York, USA

Established in New York City in 1994, Rietveld Architects LLP is known throughout the United States and Europe for its creative commercial and residential spaces. Its international team of architects embraces the latest technologies in such areas as energy savings and individual environmental controls. The firm's partners, Margaret and Rijk Rietveld, learned about 3D printing from a contact at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). They saw in this technology the potential to increase productivity and produce more innovative designs.

Challenges – Time-consuming model building

During the course of a typical project, Rietveld builds numerous models of increasing detail and scale that help its clients to visualize designs. Like other firms, they traditionally built these models by hand. This task usually required two employees to spend upwards of two months cutting, assembling, and finishing components made of cardboard, foam board, and Plexiglass. The time and expense to hand craft these complex elements limited the amount of detail in these models, which sometimes made it difficult to demonstrate the merits of the design. Several years ago, Rietveld decided to explore how to significantly reduce the time and expense required to produce detailed architectural models. They were also interested in how to produce better representations of designs and quickly respond to client feedback to facilitate the decision-making process. “We saw that big changes were coming to the architectural industry and believed that firms that could do more with less and deliver superior models would be more competitive in the new environment,” says Rijk Rietveld.

Solution – 3D printing

Rietveld's leadership became familiar with the available 3D printing technologies and, after in-depth research on eight different systems, selected the one that fit their needs the best. “We were particularly impressed by the ability of this system to quickly produce highly detailed, accurate models with minimal office clean-up,” says Rijk Rietveld. “Some of the other technologies produced brittle models and didn't have the fine detail we sought.” According to Piet Meijs, an associate with the firm, “our 3D printer is helping us do more with less, spurring innovation in our company and industry.”

Results – Better models in less time

The prototyping capabilities offered by the 3D printing has literally shaved months off of the firm's architectural model-building process. It has reduced model creation time from two months of two employees' time to just a few hours of a single employee's time. The firm now produces more detailed models, which help clients better visualize final projects. The end result is that the firm is winning more projects and more successfully executing them. “Frequently during a project, clients request design changes or wonder how particular changes may impact the overall aesthetic,” says Meijs. Clients have been impressed by the firm's ability to create and finish models in a matter of hours. “Hand-made models often can display all of the important details in a project. The name of the game is innovation,” Meijs says. “We are constantly striving to better ourselves and better our industry. Our 3D printer is helping us do just that.”