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    Nagami 3D-prints recycled plastic to mimic melting glaciers in Spanish boutique

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    Spanish design studio Nagami has completed a shop interior for sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf near Madrid that is almost entirely 3D printed from recycled plastic.

    Walls, shelves and display tables inside the store in the Las Rozas Village designer outlet are made from 3.3 tonnes of repurposed plastic waste, sourced mainly from hospitals and used to create transluscent surfaces that resemble melting glaciers.
    Nagami has 3D-printed the interior of Ecoalf’s boutique near MadridAdditive manufacturing specialist Nagami created the plastic panels using a robotic arm equipped with a custom-built extruder that can print complex 3D forms, with the aim of uniting design and technology to raise awareness about the climate crisis.
    “We wanted to highlight the melting of the polar glaciers due to climate change,” Nagami co-founder Manuel Jiménez García told Dezeen. “So the walls are meant to represent a glacier that is cracking.”
    “The 3D-sculpted texture is a reference to the way the wind and snow erode the ice over time,” he added. “The idea was to recreate the sensation you might have when walking inside a glacier.”

    The interior was designed to resemeble a melting glacierThe Ecoalf store is the first fully 3D-printed interior completed by Nagami. And García believes it may be the first in the world to be fully 3D-printed using recycled plastic.
    The project was completed with a very short lead time of just three months from design to installation.
    Almost all of the surfaces are made from recycled plasticAccording to García, the undulating forms that cover almost all of the store’s internal surfaces pushed the robotic printing technology to its limit.
    “The machines needed to literally dance to create all of these different angles,” the designer explained. “Traditional 3D printing uses layers. But we can change the angle of the robot to make the kinds of curved and wavy forms you see in this project.”
    The walls are divided into panels and joined using connectors that form part of the printed structure. This meant that the tolerances needed to be very precise so that the components can slot together neatly.

    Nagami’s first collection features 3D-printed chairs by Zaha Hadid Architects

    On the floor, natural stone tiles feature veins reminiscent of cracking ice to enhance the feeling of walking on a glacier.
    All of the components used for the interior can be disassembled and reused or recycled for future projects. The plastic itself is almost infinitely recyclable, losing just one per cent of its structural performance with each new use, Nagami claims.
    The shop is located in the Las Rozas Village designer outletBoth companies share an interest in sustainable manufacturing, with Ecoalf creating clothing, footwear and accessories using recycled materials including plastic bottles, discarded fishing nets, used tyres and post-industrial wool and cotton.
    Similarly, Nagami works with recycled plastic to create furniture, sculptures, interiors and architectural elements as part of a closed-loop production process.
    The studio’s previous projects include several window displays for Dior, as well as a mobile toilet cubicle called The Throne and a collection of 3D-printed chairs by designers including Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects.
    Nagami used special robotic arms to 3D-print the panels. Photo by NagamiDuring the coronavirus pandemic, Nagami also made use of its quick-fire production process to 3D print face shields for medical staff.
    “We see 3D printing as one of the most sustainable forms of production,” García explained. “You don’t have to produce stock, it doesn’t create any fumes and it’s very versatile so you can create things on demand.”
    “In the future as we expand we want to have production sites around the world making things locally and reducing our carbon footprint even further.”
    All photography is by Alfonso-Quiroga unless otherwise stated.

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      Hugo McCloud’s artworks use plastic bags instead of paint

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      New York artist Hugo McCloud has created a series of artworks that contain no paint or glue, only thousands of small plastic pieces cut from single-use bags and melted together to form a motif.The series, called Burdened, is on view at Sean Kelly Gallery in Hudson Yards, New York until 27 February and spans 31 original pieces created by McCloud while quarantining in his Mexico studio.

      Together shows women carrying goods across the border of Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city in Morocco
      To create the collages, which mainly depict scenes of labour, McCloud first traces them onto a wood panel before filling them in with the multicoloured plastic scraps.
      These are individually cut from plastic bags and layered on top of each other, much like individual brush strokes, before being fused together with an iron.

      Burdened is on show at Sean Kelly Gallery

      “Due to the nature of the material and its thinness, you can always see underneath, so one colour applied on top of another creates a third colour,” McCloud told Dezeen.
      “There has to be a lot of forethought and planning before starting. The plastic is fused onto the panel with an iron, there is no removal or covering up, you must know what you’re trying to achieve. With paint, there is more freedom for chance and emotions. I do miss some of that but working with the plastic is very meditative, with an understood direction.”

      Several of the artworks show refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya
      The bags come from recycling yards and waste management companies, or else the artist picks them up off the street himself or reuses ones that were given to him while shopping.
      Often, their branding remains visible in the final art piece, acting as a reminder of the material’s former life and reinforcing its familiarity.

      Each piece is a collage of hundreds or thousands of small plastic shreds
      Based on photographs found on the internet, the collages depict the movement of people and goods around the world, from workers transporting wares on their backs and bikes to refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat.
      In this way, the Burdened series is not just a commentary on the environmental impact of single-use plastic but also an exploration of how this ubiquitous material transcends class and geography.

      Sweet Sneak Studio’s photo series puts focus on microplastics in the food chain

      “Traveling in India, I saw multi-colour plastic sacks everywhere and started to understand their downcycle, from the companies that purchased and used them to distribute their products, down to the trash pickers in Dharavi slums,” the artist explained.
      “The idea that these plastic bags would always be around – never biodegrade – interested me, and made me curious about the hands and lives of the many people they would pass through.”

      With all your Might is one of several pieces that show goods being transported by labourers
      The exhibition also includes a mini-series of collages showing flower arrangements, which McCloud made to offer the show’s visitors and himself a moment of respite from the dispiriting news cycles and monotony of lockdown.
      McCloud, who has a background in industrial design, is known for creating “paintings” from unusual, often three-dimensional materials like bitumen or aluminium sheeting.

      The exhibition features 31 artworks
      To mark New York City’s ban on plastic bags, local artist Robin Frohardt created a grocery store installation last March that was stocked with produce like tomatoes and berries, all formed from discarded single-use carriers he had collected from the city’s streets.
      Dutch food design studio Sweet Sneak has previously explored pollution and its environmental impact through a photo series, in which common foods and drinks such as beer and sushi were topped with styrofoam bubbles and wrapped in plastic bags.
      Installation view photographs are by Jason Wyche.
      Burdened is on view at Sean Kelly Gallery until 27 February 2021. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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