Zap&Buj, making fashion through additive manufacturing

The development and manufacture of fashion through additive manufacturing is not new in the technology sector. Many firms have already benefited from 3D printing for fashion design and production. Innovation and originality in the creation of unique products opens up a world of possibilities for brands. For this reason, we wanted to learn more about how companies that decide to integrate new technologies do so. We spoke to Raquel Buj, one of the creators of the Zap&Buj brand, which stand at the intersection between architecture, fashion and technology.

3DN: Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your relationship with 3D printing?

I am Raquel Buj, architect, fashion designer, teacher and researcher. My approach to 3D printing was, first, discovering incredible 3D printing works such as the shoes made in collaboration with United Nude and 3D Systems with the architect Zaha Hadid or the Kinematic Dress by Nervous System in 2014-15. Later on I discovered Iris van Herpen’s suits and her experimentation with different techniques and materials in 3D . At the prototype level, I began to carry out some tests, firstly failed, in a postgraduate course at the ETSAM on Architecture and Fashion. Later, in the studio I co-founded with Elena Zapico, Zap&Buj, we continued experimenting with 3D printing in several of our designs.

Raquel Buj

3DN: How did the creation of the Zap&Buj studio come about?

As architects and fashion designers, Zap&Buj emerged as a meeting place between both disciplines. We like to think of it as a “laboratory” where we investigate this relationship in an experimental way, both at a concept level and in the use of materials. We work with materials brought from very different fields and mix them with technologies. All this to generate new horizons between the hard of Architecture and the soft of Fashion.