When art meets technology, innovation thrives. Discover how NAMIC Hub@SIT harnessed the power of additive manufacturing to bring an immersive art installation to life, showcasing sustainable design and reimagining the possibilities of 3D printing.
Additive manufacturing (AM), which includes technologies like 3D printing, has the power to drive sustainability by using resources more efficiently, cutting down on waste and encouraging innovation. Beyond its industrial applications, 3D printing can also serve as a powerful tool for conveying meaningful messages through art.
One example is Scarce City, an immersive art theatre installation that challenges participants to reflect on the concept of “enough” in today’s increasingly resource-scarce world. Participants engage in an illumination-based resource management game enhanced by body tracking, where teamwork and strategy are key to success.
Supported by the NAMIC Hub@SIT, this installation merges technology with thought-provoking art to engage audiences in a deeper conversation about resource scarcity, sustainability, and the future of urban living.
The Process Behind Scarce City
For Scarce City’s creator Elizabeth Mak, a climate artist deeply committed to sustainable practices, constructing an immersive, tactile world required a dynamic, organic structure crafted in an environmentally responsible way. The use of rPET filament, a recycled plastic, was essential to align with her vision of creating art that champions sustainability.
Creating the set pieces for Scarce City posed logistical challenges. The project’s experimental and iterative nature required continuous prototyping and adjustments, leaving no finalised design files. Manufacturers, who rely on finalised designs to ensure accuracy and avoid production errors, were unwilling to proceed without them. Additionally, finding a printer to produce the initial scale of 1m x 1m blocks with intricate details proved difficult. However, with NAMIC Hub@SIT, Elizabeth found a true partnership, which enabled the development of the light containers, ensured the use of rPET filament, and completed the manufacturing of the final exhibits within a tight time frame of just 10 months.
While exploring production methods, techniques such as vacuum forming and injection moulding were considered. However, these approaches proved unsuitable due to the high costs, time-intensive processes, and limited flexibility required to accommodate over 1,700 unique rock designs. Ultimately, 3D printing emerged as the ideal solution. It allowed the team to rapidly prototype Elizabeth’s vision, enabling quick iterations and immediate feedback on how the pieces would interact with the LED wall and lighting environment. This process offered a perfect balance of material sustainability, efficiency, and precision, bringing her intricate designs to life in a way that would otherwise have been prohibitively costly and complex through conventional manufacturing methods.
The NAMIC Hub@SIT, a research centre funded by the National Additive Manufacturing and Innovation Cluster (NAMIC), operates within SIT’s Innovation Hub (InnoHub) to drive innovation through 3D printing. For Associate Professor Gan Hiong Yap, Head of NAMIC Hub@SIT, the collaboration with Scarce City was an opportunity to inspire the public to rethink the possibilities of AM.
“While many are promoting AM in engineering, we strive to go beyond the typical approach. We aim to develop something unique and exciting that showcases both the distinctive design possibilities enabled by AM and its ability to contribute significantly to a more sustainable world,” he explained.
Working closely with Elizabeth, Hui Yijian, an AM Design Engineer at NAMIC Hub@SIT, devised a creative solution: producing the components using readily available consumer-grade 3D printers. They had just 10 months to go from the drawing board to the final exhibits.
Art Meets Technology
The journey from concept to creation was marked by rigorous R&D. As the project’s vision involved light and gamification, the team first had to decide whether to use transparent or white material. This may sound like a purely aesthetic choice, but in fact, choosing transparency dictated fundamentally different technical requirements. The team spent three months on iterative R&D, meticulously refining the materials for the Scarce City installation to achieve the ideal translucency level.
Once the team achieved the ideal balance of characteristics, they employed iterative R&D to refine three major design iterations. Prototyping began with 20cm x 20cm models, gradually scaling up to 1m x 1m pieces, some of which were featured in the exhibition. Following a successful alpha test, they transitioned to full-scale production, crafting close to 4,000 individual pieces assembled into five walls and a giant 3D rock for the installation.
Given the size constraints of their 3D printers, it took 7,520 hours to print and 680 hours to weld the individual rocks to create the walls, which span over 10 metres long and form the immersive gaming space – a striking visual inspired by the natural beauty of Singapore’s Little Guilin rock quarry.
“At the beginning, the idea of printing so many pieces felt almost unimaginable. Then, when it finally came together and I saw all 4,000 pieces for the first time, I was in awe. It really struck me how huge the scale of this project was,” said Yijian.
Elizabeth and Yijian’s collaboration culminated in a sculptural environment that functioned not merely as a surface but as a unique vessel for light. This immersive creation highlights 3D printing on a scale seldom seen in art exhibitions, blending innovation with artistic vision. The collaboration pushed the boundaries of design while aligning with the project’s commitment to creating sustainable, world-class art that inspires reflection.
A New Benchmark in Sustainable Art
Large art installations often grapple with the issue of waste, with set designs typically discarded after being built and dismantled. However, Scarce City demonstrates how AM can revolutionise art-making by prioritising sustainability. By incorporating sustainable materials from the outset, the process adopts a circular approach where components can be reused and repurposed repeatedly.
Additionally, 3D printing enables localised production and digital warehousing, where 3D models are stored digitally, reducing the carbon footprint associated with global supply chains. Using around 200kg of upcycled plastics to print the entire installation, only 10kg, or 5% of waste was generated. This is because, unlike traditional manufacturing, which involves carving material from a larger block, additive manufacturing constructs objects by adding material layer by layer, resulting in greater material efficiency.
“My goal was to channel the aesthetics, emotions, and functionality the artist wanted and reinterpret them through the medium of 3D printing, creating something technologically advanced but also highly tactile and artistically appealing,” said Yijian.
The Scarce City project aligns with SIT’s commitment to sustainability and innovation, since collaborations like this can inspire fresh approaches to tackling climate challenges by demonstrating innovative ways to rethink resource use and waste reduction.
Beyond Scarce City: NAMIC Hub@SIT’s Broader Impact
One of the most significant yet often overlooked aspects of this technology is its immense cross-disciplinary potential, and NAMIC Hub@SIT provides opportunities for organisations’ innovation through additive manufacturing.
For example, SIT students from Health and Social Sciences cluster have the opportunity to prototype customised tools, enabling them to create specialised supports for accurately positioning patients during treatment. AM is also used by SIT’s Food Technology students, working with local hospitals to prototype innovative food moulds to make eating easier for elderly patients with chewing or swallowing difficulties.
Beyond SIT, the NAMIC Hub@SIT is also collaborating with a local publisher to create localised story tactile books for visually impaired children. For instance, when a ball is described through braille, the reader can feel a 3D-printed sphere, enhancing their understanding of shapes and objects they cannot see while providing a more immersive reading experience.
These initiatives exemplify NAMIC Hub@SIT’s dedication to harnessing AM technology to address real-world challenges and make a meaningful impact across multiple sectors. For SIT, a project like Scarce City acts as a springboard for future collaborations at the intersection of sustainability, art, and technology, demonstrating to the public how these disciplines can converge to inspire change.
By supporting projects like this, NAMIC Hub@SIT not only advances AM innovation but also inspires fresh approaches to addressing challenges across industries. As A/Prof Gan puts it, “It all starts with your imagination. Figure out what you need, and then use additive manufacturing to bring it to life.”
