Output details

A 3D Print of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates

In 2010 Dr. Cawthorne was commissioned by an American / Greek client consortium to produce a highly detailed digital reconstruction and 3D print of the 4th century BC Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. Drawings by the 18th century architects James Stuart and Nicholas Revett were used as the basis of the reconstruction since much of the detail on the actual monument has been lost in the intervening 250 years.

A number of versions of this reconstruction were required for various exhibition and fabrication purposes and required innovative internal structural design and lightening to allow such a large 3D print in resin bonded gypsum powder to bear its own weight. As part of this process an innovative post production surface treatment was developed to greatly increase both the hardness of the material and yield a very even and lustrous bright white finish, reminiscent of the pentellic marble from which many parts of the original monument were created.

Further innovative techniques were developed to digitally convert the complex 2D drawings of the circular frieze around the entablature of the monument into full 3D relief. Although not the largest produced by the group (components for a two meter high version in the US were produced for slip casting) a 1:20 scale direct print version was selected as a centerpiece exhibit by the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh for their Open Exhibition in November – December 2010.