Eight-Meter 3D-Printed Horns Bring Digital Fabrication into Tate Modern’s Soundscape-3DPTimes

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Eight-Meter 3D-Printed Horns Bring Digital Fabrication into Tate Modern’s Soundscape

November 3, 2026 Applications 3DPTimes Editorial | Source: Fab.Pub official project account, reviewed November 3, 2026. 7

Fab.Pub’s account of Tarek Atoui’s installation reveals a coordinated project involving printed horns, bamboo composites and multiple fabrication systems.

Chart: 3DPTimes. Component counts reported by Fab.Pub for the Tarek Atoui project; reviewed November 3, 2026. This chart is not an installation photograph.

A sound installation built across several scales

Fab.Pub’s official project account describes its work with Mamou-Mani Architects and Studio Tarek Atoui on the Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern. Suspended printed horns reach up to eight meters, within a wider installation incorporating platforms, towers, table bases and boundary rings.

The fabrication team reports nine horns, 36 platforms, six towers, 16 table bases and two boundary rings. These are component counts, not measures of weight or printing time.

Chart: 3DPTimes. Component counts reported by Fab.Pub for the Tarek Atoui project; reviewed November 3, 2026. This chart is not an installation photograph.

Material and process are part of the design

Fab.Pub describes bamboo compounded with PLA for horns and rings, and with PETG for platforms and towers. Different components used robotic and large-format printing approaches. Its account also documents structural tests before installation.

The project shows why a single material choice or machine specification cannot explain a large fabricated work. Geometry, extrusion behavior, connections and assembly have to function together.

Chart: 3DPTimes. Reported horn quantities and dimensions; the maximum individual length is distinct from total printed horn length. Data: Fab.Pub, reviewed November 3, 2026.

3DPTimes view: fabrication becomes a design medium

The editorial significance is the connection between physical behavior and artistic intent. A printed form can help shape an experience, while its production method influences texture, joints and the freedom to revise geometry.

For designers considering similar work, the transferable lesson is to develop fabrication and validation alongside the concept. Full-scale testing deserves a place in the design schedule, particularly when components are suspended or encountered by the public. This is a project analysis, not a claim of a newly opened exhibition today.

Source: Fab.Pub, “Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui, Tate Modern,” official project account; publication date not stated, reviewed November 3, 2026.
https://fabpub.com/pages/tarek-atoui-tate-modern
Original reporting, analysis and data charts: 3DPTimes, November 3, 2026. The charts summarize reported project data and do not reproduce the artwork or third-party photography.