printGREEN – 3d printer that unites art, technology and nature

Those who viewed China Pets to be nothing but an innovation couldn’t imagine that those would lay the basis for something we can observe in the 21^st century. Head-shaped ceramic pots were sown, so that chia would grow and it would remind of fur and hair. The printGREEN 3D printer from Maribor University in Slovenia developed the concept one step forward and spreads out grass sowing in any way you want it.

printGREEN was created to combine technology, art and nature into one whole idea. The idea belongs to Slovenian art education students Tina Zidanšek, Danica Rženičnik, Urška Skaza and Maja Petek. The appliance is an altered CNC machine that squeezes out soil, water and seeds made up into paste in any shape preprogrammed. Since the appliance doesn’t have a Z-axis, it cannot move in 3 dimensions.  In fact to be a real 3D printer it employs an organic Z-axis. The following layers develop with time as plantlife is printed onto the lower layer, ultimately making it deeper.

One step forward was already taken, we suppose the printGREEN machine will soon reproduce a pattern of the walls of a semi-organic house. Something resembling carbon-intensified leafage may appear from the dirt and make up walls. The printGREEN could cover the construction with a roof.  If you don’t like the kind of 3D printer from Slovenia, it will be quite easy to join a Z-axis with several extruders. That will be efficient to print out a grass-infused object in 3D with additive manufacturing. Or else printGREEN has a lot to offer that will inspire you.  Can we call it forerunner self-comprehensive robots of the future?