Makerbot Stories | Pratt Institute School of Architecture

For a course at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Leland Jobson and Andrew Reitz designed an artificial iceberg that is also a floating resort. They used a MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer to make a model of vaulted chambers of ice. “The way me and Andrew were able to be more confident in pursuing this project was having a way to build it,” said Jobson.

The MakerBot Replicator in the school’s Digital Futures office also helped them to develop the concept. 3D printed study models, they said, help them see their ideas more objectively than on a computer screen, and with this critical distance they can improve their ideas. And Reitz says that while the model is printing, “I can refocus and reorganize my attentions.”

“I can’t see myself not having a 3D printer in the future; I think it’s just going to be part of what I do for the rest of my life,” says Reitz.