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brad baxley

  • design
  • about
  • contact
  • cv

nobel circle

Location: Pearl Street Mall | Boulder, CO | Status: Not built | Software: Modo, solidThinking Inspire, Rhino, Grasshopper | Medium: 3D Printed Earth, Cast Aluminum | Ongoing

The Nobel Circle project celebrates the scientific heritage in Boulder, CO with 7 Nobel Laureates hailing from its institutions. 

Originally initiated as a commission by the Nobel Circle Committee for a concept design to raise seed capital, it has since developed into a line of personal research. It considers lessons learned in The Rulers | 2014.

The pavilion-like structure is currently intended to be constructed from ceramic masonry units derived via 3D printing and buttressed by a shell of cast aluminum derived from cnc milling for investment casting.

floats 2.0

Software: Modo, solidThinking Inspire, Rhino, Grasshopper, CC Photoshop, CC Illustrator | Materials: 3D printed ____ core | Ongoing

 

Floats is all about “making things different”. The name and brand represent an ongoing body of research investigating how novel digital design and fabrication techniques contribute to changing conception, production and perception of consumer goods.

Ultralight outdoor gear is the vehicle. Floats synthesizes and leverages several contemporary discourses as a means to maximize sustainability in manufacturing processes and performance of gear in the field.

The first concept design under the Floats label is a new approach to ultralight trekking poles. The design involves a 3D printed core that is cnc composite fiber-wound. Via topology optimization and biometric parametric inputs, both the core and the monocoque shell are modulated based on performance needs while optimizing manufacturing efficiency. Material where you need it, none where you don’t.

zika virus

Software: Modo, Zbrush, Photoshop | 2016

This project dove deep into the newly discovered structure of the Zika Virus and attempted to give it a face so to speak. 

We hear a good deal about the virus, and its affects are indeed tragic. The aim of the work was to reveal and dispel some of the mystery surrounding the organism.

Using molecularly accurate structures from the PDB, the components were imported and built into clean, polygonal models for scene layout, texturing, and rendering. These models can also be exported to any NURBS based or solid modeling software. Ultimately being millable or printable.

pseudomonas aeruginosa

Software: Modo, Zbrush, Photoshop | 2015

The rise of drug resistant bacteria might be the defining issue of our era. Pseudomonas is one of many bacteria that are gaining resistance to our last line of defense in terms of antibiotics. Most commonly, the super strains are transmitted in hospital environments. In the case of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the bacteria form highly complex networks of biofilms which structurally inhibit micro-mechanisms from penetrating them. Since many medical apparatus such as respirators and catheters are used in septic patients, the probability of cross-patient contamination increases significantly. Irresponsible prescribing and usage contribute heavily to the rapid rate of mutation in these specimens as well.

That said, the sophistication and beauty in these systems can not be denied. Both planktonic and biofilm forms are represented.

succulent planters

Software: Modo, Rhino, Photoshop | Status: Unprinted | Medium: 3D print for slip casting | 2017

The succulent planters offer a passive watering vessel with countless clustering configurations. 

In plan the array accounts for wrapping around both concave and convex 90 degree corners. A topography is created along the shared edge contours between neighboring modules.

ps canopy

Conference: SIGGRAPH 2009 | Firm: su11 Architecture + Design | Software: Generative Components, Modo, Rhino | Model: Zcorp 3D Print

The PS Canopy is a prototypical design exploring how parametric modeling can lend itself to novel architectural methods. 

In this maquette we test an adaptable roof structure and a series of support members. Given certain requirements for sunlight and privacy, the apertures  dilate accordingly.

Furthermore, we attempt to design a system in which structure, systems and aesthetics are seamless.

the rulers

Location: Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics - University of Colorado, Boulder/NIST - Boulder, CO | Status: Installed March 2014 | Medium: Cast Aluminum, Black Oxide

The Rulers is an icon for JILA’s excellence in its three major areas of research – Astrophysics, Precision Measurement, and Quantum Physics. Each figure represents one of these areas.

The relief was digitally designed and realized via cnc milling for investment casting. Compressing the design in one dimension lent most of the constraint and, as a result, it was treated as an extruded painting of sorts. 

Techniques were developed to manipulate light including a recursive fractal in which cells could be extruded or recessed.

floats og

Software: Modo, solidThinking Inspire, Rhino, Grasshopper, CC Photoshop, CC Illustrator, need program for cnc fiber-winding | Materials: 3D printed ____ core, cnc composite fiber-wound shell, 3D printed cork | Ongoing

Floats is all about “making things different”. The name and brand represent an ongoing body of research investigating how novel digital design and fabrication techniques contribute to changing conception, production and perception of consumer goods.

Ultralight outdoor gear is the vehicle. Floats synthesizes and leverages several contemporary discourses as a means to maximize sustainability in manufacturing processes and performance of gear in the field.

The first concept design under the Floats label is a new approach to ultralight trekking poles. The design involves a 3D printed core that is cnc composite fiber-wound. Via topology optimization and biometric parametric inputs, both the core and the monocoque shell are modulated based on performance needs while optimizing manufacturing efficiency. Material where you need it, none where you don’t.

the lizabelle

Material: American Bison, Nylon | 2017

purkinjie neurons

Software: Modo, ZBrush, Photoshop | 2015

The human brain remains one of the greatest frontiers in contemporary science, and its vastness only expands with each new breakthrough. Its mystery baffles our brightest, and its complexity is virtually incomprehensible.

Purkinjie cells, with their characteristic intricate dentritic network (many fine, branching fibers), are responsible for critical exchanges of information and molecular carriers between different layers of our brains.

Interestingly, these thresholds primarily exist between very primitive and relatively novel compartments. 

Dr. Jeff Lichtman’s work at the Harvard Center for Brain Science provided the underpinnings and inspiration for this set of images. - unaffiliated

london arch_ive

Location: Hackney River Front - London, UK | Status: Not Built | Program: Library/Study Space | Software: Grasshopper, Rhino, Modo | Model: SLS 3D Print | 2009

The Arch_ive is a design for a library of sorts. This “boneyard” for post-review architectural artifacts developed in academia also serves as a hub for information exchange.

The form responds to previously used loading and unloading sites along Deptford Creek in the Hackney District of London in a series of converging and expanding spaces. 

The perforated envelope is parametrically programmed and becomes more or less porous depending on how “flexed” the membrane is at any given moment.

Done in collaboration with Erick Katzenstein.

bird's pack

Material: 14 oz. Duck Canvas, Nylon | 2017

Bird's pack is a cycling pack with mountain biking in mind. It also serves as an exercise in construction techniques to be used in future ultralight backpack endeavors.

 

thylakoids

Software: Modo, Zbrush, Photoshop | 2016

self portrait

Dimensions: 48" x 70" | Medium: acrylic, charcoal on raw canvas | 2016

Nature

27 February 2014, Vol. 506 No. 7489 pp407-522

gram-negative rods

Software: Modo, Photoshop | 2015

derby shirt

Material: Knit polyester, cotton | 2012

desert lady

 Dimensions: 48" x 70" | Medium: acrylic, charcoal on raw canvas | 2017

primary lady

 Dimensions: 18" x 24" | Medium: acrylic, graphite on arches paper | 2005

Nature Materials

September 2015, Vol. 14 No. 9 pp849-960

timmy with mixed up brains

 Dimensions: 40" x 60" | Medium: acrylic, charcoal on raw canvas | 2016

Advanced Functional Materials

23 October 2012, Vol. 22 No. 20

pedal straps

Material: Nylon | 2012

tension table

Dimensions: 30" x 36" x 18" | Material: cnc milled ply, walnut | 2008

reflex table

Dimensions: 12" x 24" x 18" | Material: cedar, ash bent ply | 2008

bull leg table

Dimensions: 16" x 30" x 18" | Material: african mahogany | 2008

red lady

Dimensions: 60" x 36" | Medium: acrylic, charcoal on raw canvas | 2009

self portrait

Dimensions: 24" x 36" | Medium: acrylic, graphite on canvas | 2010

self portrait

Dimensions: 10" x 12" | Medium: acrylic on matboard | 2004

suspended lady

Dimensions: 36" x 24" | Medium: acrylic, charcoal on arches paper | 2006

self portrait

Dimensions: 18" x 18" | Medium: acrylic on corrugated | 2004

nobel circle

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floats 2.0

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zika virus

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pseudomonas aeruginosa

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succulent planters

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ps canopy

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the rulers

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floats og

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the lizabelle

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purkinjie neurons

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london arch_ive

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bird's pack

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thylakoids

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self portrait

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Nature

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gram-negative rods

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derby shirt

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desert lady

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primary lady

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Nature Materials

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timmy with mixed up brains

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Advanced Functional Materials

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pedal straps

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tension table

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reflex table

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bull leg table

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red lady

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self portrait

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self portrait

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suspended lady

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self portrait

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