On IMZ through Oct. 30: Ninefold

What happens when discarded 3D printing plastic is given a second life? At Georgia Tech, it can become part of a large-scale installation that combines architecture, music, engineering, and light.

Two students from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering helped make that transformation possible for Ninefold: A Distributed Resonant Field, an interdisciplinary installation is on view Sept. 14 – Oct. 30 in the Interactive Media Zone at the Georgia Tech Library.  

Graduate student Arunn Sankar and second-year student Andrew Hong helped develop the process and operate the equipment used to transform discarded 3D printing material from the Flowers Invention Studio into components for the installation.

The installation was created by Hyojin Kwon, an assistant professor in the School of Architecture; Jeremy Muller, a lecturer in the School of Music; and Misri Patel, a 2025 Ventulett NEXT Fellow in the School of Architecture. The project was made possible through the National Science Foundation-funded ReCreateIt: Transforming Plastic Waste Through Community-Led Manufacturing project, led at Tech by the Woodruff School’s Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair Carolyn Seepersad. Kwon joined the ReCreateIt research team as a co-principal investigator, bringing her work in architecture, circular material systems, and large-scale fabrication to the collaboration.

“What has been particularly valuable about the collaboration is that architecture and mechanical engineering approach the same material from different but complementary perspectives,” Kwon said. “As architects, we are interested in how recycled plastic can generate new spatial, aesthetic, cultural, and experiential possibilities. Mechanical engineering brings critical expertise in material behavior, manufacturing, process constraints, and performance.”

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