Maze of Imagination

Inspired by Robinson Fredenthal's space-filling geometries, this project combines tetrahedra and octahedra into a robotically 3D-printed clay system — developing complex, structurally-supported polyhedral shapes and validating them with full-scale prototypes, from clay mixing through 3D printing, firing, and glazing.

I worked on the computational design workflow, built in Rhino → Grasshopper → an ABB 4600 robot controller, that turns a target geometry into printable contour curves and toolpaths. A key problem was that printing directly from the digital geometry's contours didn't account for the clay extruder's nozzle width, so blocks wouldn't fit together; I developed an offset strategy that compensates for nozzle radius so the printed pieces assemble correctly.

To make the piece interactive, I integrated a Pixy2 camera with an Arduino to detect the colors people were wearing and trigger corresponding NeoPixel lighting inside the printed structure. We also explored AI-generated micro-relief textile patterns — using deep learning to propose alternative surface logics for the printed clay blocks, in contrast to the usual rigid geometric patterning.