During Miami Art and Design Week 2024, Lexus and the innovative studio Crafting Plastics joined forces to present Liminal Cycles. This multisensory installation features a remarkable 3D printed car sculpture crafted from bioplastic, captivating visitors at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) from December 1st to 15th. The interactive sculpture allows viewers to get up close and witness its color changing in real time through environmental stimuli like UV radiation and proximity. The base of this extraordinary creation is Lexus' LF-ZC model, a pioneering battery-electric concept car first introduced at the 2023 Japan Motor Show.

Unveiling the Future of Automotive Art with Lexus and Crafting Plastics

Unraveling the Concept of Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs)

Crafting Plastics was tasked with bringing Lexus' Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) concept to life. SDVs empower car owners to define the style, format, and even identity of their vehicles through customizing software and installed technologies. This inspired the design studio to create a full-scale model of the smart LF-ZC, 3D printed from Nuatan®, a bio-based material that is biodegradable, derived from 100% renewable resources, and leaves no microplastics behind. "It's based on sugars and starches," explains Vlasta Kubušová, co-founder of Crafting Plastics during an interview in Miami. "The raw resource can vary, but we mainly use sugarcane. We also combine agricultural byproducts and fibers like bamboo to create different types of composites for more flexible materials."

Lexus and Crafting Plastics collaborated to produce this astonishing 3D printed car sculpture. Crafting Plastics, a Bratislava-based research and design studio founded by Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král, has been dedicated to researching and developing alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics for the creative industry since 2016. Their goal was to create materials that are 100% bio-based, biodegradable, and industrially compostable. This wasn't an easy journey, but their efforts have been successful. By combining sugars, starches, agricultural byproducts, and fibers like bamboo, they have developed pieces that can be biodegraded and composted after use. This means the 3D printed car sculpture for Lexus at Liminal Cycles can be dissolved if the manufacturer no longer wishes to reuse it after the event.

The car sculpture is crafted by feeding Nuatan bioplastic into a 3D printer and coating it with a UV-responsive material. This film causes the car to change colors as it reacts to its surroundings, expanding and contracting as if breathing, visualizing the fascinating relationship between technology and nature.

Art Installations at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami

The 3D printed car sculpture isn't alone in Lexus' Liminal Cycles. In other parts of the ICA garden, three additional satellite installations by Crafting Plastics accompany the bioplastic vehicle. Each piece reflects design elements inspired by the LF-ZC concept car. The first artwork is a flower-like sculpture similar to the concept car's steering wheel, which visitors can touch. Interacting with it varies the volume and intensity of the site-specific sound composition, depending on how softly or firmly they engage with it.

The second piece reimagines the LF-ZC's headrest as lounge seating that sprays a Lexus-inspired scent. The last installation has the allure of architecture as a wind-activated, lattice-like sculpture. Like the 3D printed car, it has a UV-reactive bioplastic material to detect changes in UV radiation. When triggered, it subtly reveals the Lexus logo across its structure.

A Limited-Edition Capsule Collection

All these artworks adhere to the brief Lexus had in mind when conceiving the project – to create interactive, reactive, and software-like pieces that people can engage with and realize the concept of Software Defined Vehicles. At the event, Lexus introduced a capsule collection of 26 collectible design objects by Crafting Plastics, Germane Barnes, Michael Bennett (Studio Kër), Suchi Reddy, and Tara Sakhi (T SAKHI).

Each object embodies the brand's ethos of personalization, sustainability, materiality, technology, and performance. Germane Barnes presents ceramic vessels from his "The Beauty of Labor" series, reflecting his award-winning research on the value of high-quality performance in design. Michael Bennett showcases a series of amber glass vessels titled "Synesthesia," an exercise in materiality and repetition inspired by Lexus' design process.

Suchi Reddy crafts "Bloom," a tabletop centerpiece for flowers and scents, using interlocking slit paper to explore technology-based and intelligent design. In "Memory," Tara Sakhi (T SAKHI) encounters sustainability as an expressive representation of material evolution, resulting in exceptional luxury design through the fusion of recyclable materials. Crafting Plastics presents bioplastics in modular, customizable, and biodegradable forms. Fragrance brand dilo also collaborated with Lexus to create a series of candles with scents like blood orange, bergamot, cedar, and moss for the collection. Until December 15th, 2024, visitors to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami can experience the Liminal Cycles installation and learn more about the design process through our conversation with Vlasta Kubušová.

Interview with Crafting Plastics' Vlasta Kubušová

designboom (DB): It's a pleasure to meet you here in Miami, Vlasta. Can you tell us about Crafting Plastics and your work at the studio?Vlasta Kubušová (VK): My partner Miroslav Král and I run Crafting Plastics, starting in 2016. Our main focus is to develop, research, and explore new material possibilities that are better and healthier. From the beginning, our goal was to find better alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics without compromising on ecological aspects. As creative people, we were fascinated by the materiality and potential of new biopolymers. Through deeper research, we realized that progress requires a collaborative approach. Our studio is interdisciplinary, combining material science research and design. Our latest work is about creating dynamic and responsive materials that interact with the environment and users. This connection between our brands was one reason Lexus chose us for this year's installation.

DB: Right, and we see that you've 3D printed the bioplastic Nuatan for the car sculpture with Lexus. Is this a new material, or one you've developed before for this collaboration?VK: Essentially, we were aiming to develop materials not based on oil and fossil fuels but completely natural. The material is 100% bio-based, biodegradable, and industrially compostable. We adjust the material properties of these biopolymers to use them in different technologies. In the near future or already now, companies can start using them on a larger scale, and one of the technologies we use is 3D printing. When we started, most bioplastic materials were only for one-off products. Our difference was finding solutions for durable products. Imagine using these bioplastics for furniture or consumer goods that can last 15, 20, or even 50 years. When they're no longer needed, they can be put in industrial compost and decompose. The base of this material is sugars and starches. The raw resource can vary, but we mostly use sugarcane. We create different composites using agricultural byproducts and fibers like bamboo for more flexible materials. And for the installation, the main sculpture is completely 3D printed. We wanted to show that it's not just about mass production but also about these materials being suitable for real-scale products. It was exciting to implement our materials on such a large scale like in the car sculpture.

DB: So, does this mean the installation translates the Lexus car model into its conceptual form?VK: We worked around the actual LF-ZC model and translated it into a more sculptural and artistic form. We created the car sculpture from several fragments that are not static but breathe. The whole sculpture expands and contracts based on various stimuli, and the car reacts to the visitor's proximity and invites them to come closer by opening itself. There are also other sculptures. One is a representation of a steering wheel that communicates with the car. By touching it, you can influence the breathing. This responsiveness and adaptability are the goals of the LF-ZC car. We wanted to show that through the materialities, you can bring the responsive feeling and experience. It's not just about responding to visitors or users but also the car reacting to the environment, changing color with UV radiation. You can see throughout the day how the UV rays affect the colors, making them more intense.