11,534 Parts and 3,500 Hours of Hard Work: He Replicated the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests of the Temple of Heaven Using 3D Printing

3,500 hours, 50 kg of materials, 11,534 parts… Mu Yaoguang, a well-known maker in the Chinese architectural model community, used 3D printing and PLA-Wood material to make a perfect scaled reproduction of classic architecture, reviving the vitality and charm of traditional architectural culture through new technologies and new materials.

Mu Yaoguang, the legendary “cyber carpenter”, an enthusiast of mortise and tenon structures, and a firm supporter of wood materials, comes from Shanxi, a region rich in ancient architectural resources. He loves ancient architectural culture and possesses a deep understanding of it. At this stage, in addition to replicating classic architecture, he also designs and prints related aesthetic works or home decoration pieces, such as octagonal towers, wooden desk lamps, and various ornaments.

Application of 3D Printing in the Replication of Ancient Architectural Structures

Elements such as flying eaves, Dougong (bracket sets), and railings in ancient architecture often contain a large number of complex details. With the help of digital modeling and 3D printing technology, such complex architectural designs can be gradually disassembled to achieve high-precision structural molding in actual production. This provides an efficient solution for the physical presentation of complex structures such as traditional mortise and tenon.

What Does PLA-Wood Material Need to Satisfy in Practical Applications?

Ancient architecture takes wooden structures as its core foundation. Therefore, when using 3D printing to replicate ancient architecture, the material needs to balance the “print molding rate” and the “visual texture of wood”.

In the actual creation, the author selected PLA-Wood as the main material, mainly based on the following evaluations:

Delicate and soft texture: Compared with ordinary PLA, the surface texture of PLA-Wood after printing is delicate and soft, meeting the visual needs of works that lean towards “material expression”.

Display of details of models printed with eSUN PLA-Wood

Mechanical and structural performance: For large-scale architectural models with a large number of parts and complex assembly, the material needs to have a certain degree of interlayer bonding strength to ensure the integrity and stability of small structural parts during the subsequent complex assembly.

Consistency and stability of the material: In continuous or large-scale project creations, the batch consistency and performance stability of the material are important guarantees for the normal progress of the project.

Feedback on the Use of eSUN PLA-Wood

After the in-depth and comprehensive use of eSUN PLA-Wood material, the author gave it a high evaluation:

Not to mention the overall printing fluency, the performance of eSUN materials has always been very stable in this regard. The interlayer bonding is also very good, which can meet the stable output needs of long-term printing and multi-part structures.

However, what surprised me the most is the texture of the material. The exterior of the printed model is very delicate, and it feels warm and smooth to the touch. The effect is exceptionally good.”

From the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests of the Temple of Heaven to various other related models, Mu Yaoguang is continuously exploring the digital expression methods of traditional architecture using 3D printing.

In this process, materials are not only the foundation for realizing creations, but they also affect the presentation methods and final texture of the works to a certain extent.

eSUN has always been committed to providing users with more stable support and more possibilities for inspiration through the continuous innovation and texture optimization of 3D printing materials, allowing different types of creativity to be realized and expressed more smoothly.