Bionic Partitions: A Close-Up Look at The Living’s Pioneering 3D-Printed Structures

New York-based design practice The Living loves a wild experiment, from amphibious architecture to bricks made from mushrooms. Now, they have taken their passion for stepping into the unknown to the next level, conceiving a unique structural system for the bodies of aircraft that could change the face of design across a plethora of creative fields.

The Bionic Partition is the world’s largest 3D-printed airplane component, created using a pioneering combination of generative design and advanced materials. In collaboration with Airbus, Autodesk and APWorks, The Living has undertaken a rigorous, two-year research and development process to devise a framework with the best possible strength-to-weight ratio. The resulting partition — comprising an intricate web of slender 3D-printed metal elements — is 50-percent lighter than current designs and substantially stronger.

A process of partition optimization sees strands of material converge under the most-stressed nodes on the panel, with a resulting mesh that appears irregular but actually conforms to a very specific structural pattern. The Bionic Partition is currently undergoing 16g crash testing as part of the process for certification and integration into the current fleet of A320 planes.

The Bionic Partition represents the next stage in the evolution of bio-computation in design. According to the firm, this process “demonstrates an ultra-high-performance result beyond typical engineering rules of thumb.” This development could have immense implications for industrial design and architecture — from lightweight prefabricated wall panels to swooping cantilevers and parametric façades, a whole new world of possibilities awaits daring designers when such technology becomes more widely available.

For more on The Living’s architectural experiments, check out its firm profile in the Architizer database.