An Indoor Kiwifruit Orchard for the Te Puke Heritage Hub

The Kiwifruit Capital of the World Heritage Hub came to us with a question: could we 3D print an indoor orchard for one of their corridors, so that visitors walking underneath would see all four seasons of a kiwifruit orchard above them.

To make it genuinely lifelike, we decided to work from 3D scans rather than model the plant from scratch. We scanned real kiwifruit branches and leaves, so the shapes came from the plant itself.

In 3D software we then assembled those scanned branches into full vines, and set out the connection points for the leaves, buds, flowers and fruit along them.

From there it became a production run. The sixteen branches were printed along with the parts that hang off them, in the hundreds.

Once painted and assembled, the finished vines were delivered to the theatre and installed overhead.

If your business has a brief like this, something that has to be made rather than bought, get in touch. Send us photos or a description and we will tell you what it would take.