3D Printers

3DiTALY's 3D Printed EGGFORM Furniture Forms the Future of Interior Design

When they are not busy creating the world’s biggest network of 3D print shops (there are now 5 3DiTALY franchise stores in Italy and two more will be opened soon), 3DiTALY experiments with new applications of 3D printing and 3D scanning. For Milan’s Furniture Fair and Design Week, Antonio Alliva and his team are using these technologies to present EGGFORM, a new concept for interior design.

3ditaly2

To promote their recent distribution partnerships with both Ultimaker and Fuel3D, the company used Fuel3D’s Scanify scanner to digitize the texture of a leaf. This was then magnified and then replicated through 3D printing into very large sized shells, which allow for the creation of full sized objects, such as tables and chairs. The PLA shells and inner core are, thus, used as a mold into which a material, composed of a mixture of lime, gypsum, jute and wood dust, is poured.

eggform

This material then solidifies while taking a very unique outer shape based on the veins of a leaf, or, through to the capabilities of a next-gen 3D scanner like the Scanify, the skin can be shaped via mimicry, directly from other complex natural shapes, such as, for example, the plumage of a bird

For 3DiTALY, EGGFORM came as an answer to the challenges of creating a new, sustainable furniture concept with high customization possibilities and huge costs reductions. It is also a way to showcase the possibilities of the Ultimaker 3D printer and the Fuel 3D scanners to the large audience of designers present at the fair. “We have received a lot of attention from many of the designers that have come to visit our stand,” Antonio told me when I passed by. “They are particularly interested in the 3D printer and were surprised by what is possible to do with it.”

3ditaly1

In fact, the exhibit also included a set of Modulor lamps, a concept inspired by Le Corbusier’s “range of harmonious measurements to suit the human scale, universally applicable to architecture and to mechanical objects.” These lamps were made in a particular resin by using the opposite process, that is by using the 3D scanner and 3D printing to shape the interior part of the cast. The result is that each lamp, which looks like an icicle hanging down from the ceiling, emits a different grade of light, only because of its shape.

3DiTALY’s stand is located in Via Tortona, one of the main epicenters of Design Week activities, and the exhibit  continues for the entire period between April 14th and the 19th. On Saturday, 3DiTALY has also organized a launch party for the new Ultimaker Extended, which will be held on Saturday the 18th at 6.30 pm. If you are in Milan, you might want to stop by and see it for yourself.

3ditaly3