Nüdel: An Evolutionary Making System

On 1 May Nudel, a local startup founded by Melbourne Architect Tim Black, hosted a launch party in a warehouse in Fitzroy.  The event marked the commencement of Nudel’s crowd-funding campaign on website Kickstarter, scheduled to run through until 30 May 2015.

Nudel will allow users to create large scale models, sculpture, prototypes, or spaces in a manner that isn’t readily available now.  By bringing together a range of technologies in an online environment (such as 3D printing, optimization and validation procedures, CNC cutting, and encoded assembly instructions), Nudel aims to solve the cost and transportability problems of large customised models.  By breaking down a unique design into its component parts to be custom-made, flat-packed, and encoded, Nudel’s goal is to make making easy.

Nudel aims to create an online playspace, one that will allow users to create and order their own custom construction kits made up from a range of components, starting with 3D printed connectors and timber dowel rods. Aiming to appeal to maker types – people who love to tinker and create in their spare time, Nudel allows users to participate in the cultural and material production of their creations.
Nudel’s bigger ambition however, is to build a creative community that shares and evolves each other’s designs.  The hope is that an evolving conversation about what Nudel is and what it can be used for will grow over time.  To that end, the aim is to expand or evolve the initial library of available parts from printed plastic and timber to a broad range of components, as directed by community demands.

Nudel is an outgrowth of Research and Development work undertaken by BKK Architects over many years, drawing on a range of collaborations with academia and industry.  BKK has actively sought out research partners to explore applications in parametric design, optimisation procedures and advanced manufacturing, working with the groups such as RMIT University’s Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory and the Innovative Structures Group.

This mode of collaborative practice is also one that underpins the delivery of Neometro’s Jewell station project of which BKK are one of 2 leading architects (along with longstanding Neometro collaborators MAA).  The project combines the input of not only multiple architects, but a large tribe of urban designers \ landscape architects \ placemaking consultants \ community garden groups \ and the like.

Nudel is seeking funding to help build an online platform for a creative community-based evolutionary making system. It’s an exciting project well worth donating to. You can do so via the Nudel Kickstarter campaign.

Launch party photos credit: Stuart Milligan