Tom Burtonwood creates 3D printed books of dimensional, public domain architectural elements: in 2013, he made Orihon and in 2014 he made Folium, which featured work from Ancient Egypt to Louis Sullivan department store decorations. Now he’s released a new work: “Twenty Something Sullivan.”
Tom writes, “Twenty Something Sullivan is a collaboration with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson and features nine 3D scans of hitherto lost Louis H. Sullivan architectural ornament produced early in his career – hence the title of the book. It is a circular book – which is a little unusual – but necessary in order to show off the scans in high relief as Sullivan intended them to be seen. Each page is connected to two 3D printed print-in-place bearings that rotate around a central spine. The bearings are printed in ‘woodfill’ to emphasize the intersection between the old + the new.”
As with my previous two books Orihon and Folium, Twenty Something Sullivan features both the positive and negative forms of each scan, allowing people to make copies using playdoh, clay or another air drying material. Each page can detach from the spine for easy manipulation in this fashion.
Tim and I did a Pecha Kucha presentation last night at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and you can also find images of the book and links to the files for the book posted on Thingiverse. We are planning to produce a 3D printed edition and we are looking into whether a paper version produced in a larger quantity might be feasible.
Like Folium and Orihon, Twenty Something Sullivan is posted online – and into the public domain. Additionally all of the original scans are also linked to the Thingiverse account – so people can print the ornaments themselves if they don’t want to print the whole book.
