The Bio Column experiment was an exploration in the use of digital fabrication processes to reduce the amount of material needed to provide structural support. Inspired by the internal structure of human bone marrow, I developed a set of parameters to generate a porous structure that requires significantly less material than a solid block.

Taking the standard rectangular form of a traditional concrete column, a number of nodes were generated within the boundary faces of the volume. Those nodes were then connected to adjacent nodes within a given distance creating a 3 dimensional lattice. The connections were given shape and thickness based on distance and number of connections.

The patterns were then 3D printed and the resulting forms were able to provide similar levels of structural support to concrete forms of the same size while weighing a fraction of the amount. This proof of concept provides a basis with which we could re-imagine structural systems used in architecture today by utilizing digital fabrication processes and a construction methods.