The project, designed by Stefan Maier and Giacomo Pala under the supervision of Bart Lootsma, is the outcome of a collaboration between the Institute of Architecture Theory of Innsbruck University, its research team, in partnership with the Dutch company Concr3ede.

“Hypnerotomachia Naturae” is an allegorical ornamental structure made of 3d-printed fragments was exhibited at the exhibition “Schönheit vor Weisheit. Das Wissen der Kunst und die Kunst der Wissenschaft”.

The work is an installation done in order to accommodate a research cluster on the topic of Nature and architecture.

The material, realised by Concr3de’s innovative 3D printing system is realised thanks to the possibility of creating highly performative cementitious material systems.

The work is a stacking of 3D printed blocks, each different, and yet each connected to one-another, in order to generate a figurative narrative to be interpreted by the on-viewer. Each piece, made of concrete powder, is a singular unit that, interconnected with the others, generates a narrative system.

The result is a fragmented body: a continuity of discrete pieces, yet interconnected in a continuum. It is a collage-like piece that toys with new technologies and old myths, as well as with pop and high-culture in order to generate meanings through associations.

The composition of the pieces may be defined as a digital "kitbash", but it aims to be something more than a collage: it is a figural narrative representing the humans’ relation with nature and technology.

The result is consciously ambiguous, if not ironic, object unmasking the complexity and contradictory coexistence of our world’s narratives, imbued by utopias, hopes, myths, cultures and beliefs.