MX3D Smart Bridge By Joris Laarman Lab + MX3D + Arup In AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS ( 3D Printing )

MX3D Smart Bridge By Joris Laarman Lab + MX3D + Arup In AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS ( 3D Printing ) Text description provided by the architects. The installation of the bridge is the culmination of several years of work. MX3D kicked off this project in 2015 when it proposed printing a metal bridge with its innovative large-scale, robotic 3D printing technology, creating a playful, inspiring example of how digital tools can create a new form language for architectural objects.

The proprietary MX3D printing technology uses off-the-shelf welding robots to build up metal objects layer by layer. The MX3D bridge design was created using generative design and topology optimisation techniques. The combination of those technologies allow for a higher form of liberty and a promise of significant material reduction.

Smart MX3D bridge is a ‘living laboratory.’ Innovative in design and technology, the bridge serves as a living laboratory. Equipped with a state-of-the-art sensor network, the ‘Smart Bridge’ is powering a cutting-edge research project. In concert with academic and industry researchers, the City of Amsterdam will use the bridge’s data streams to explore the role of IoT systems in the built environment. For instance: can we use such systems to anonymously analyse crowd behaviour, to help better understand the impact of tourism in the Red Light District. The project also addresses questions about open data, data ethics, and citizen ownership of city analytics. For this purpose the bridge was granted a two-year permit by the city of Amsterdam

Smart sensor network feeds ‘digital twin.’ Realising this vision required an extended collaboration between MX3D, The Alan Turing Institute (the Turing), Arup, Autodesk, FORCE Technology, and the University of Twente. Between them, they have spent the last three years creating and installing a sophisticated sensor network, to enable real-time data collection, to represent those data flows in live models, and to create usable analytics on top of that data which feeds into a Digital Twin of the bridge

The bridge’s sensors collect structural measurements such as strain, rotation, load, displacement, and vibration, and also measure environmental factors such as air quality and temperature. Together, this data is used to create a ‘digital twin,’ an accurate computer model that represents the physical bridge in real-time. The digital twin will help engineers measure the bridge’s health and monitor how it changes over its lifespan. The sensor data will also be used to “teach” the bridge to understand what is happening on it, beginning with the ability to count how many people are crossing it and how quickly.

Architects: Joris Laarman Lab; Engineers: Arup, MX3D Year: 2021 Photographs: Th ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVTrlonLHgg