3-D Printing Requires Furnishings to New Heights in ICFF 2013

3-D Printing Requires Furnishings to New Heights in ICFF 2013

Now’s printers do much more than ink on paper. Now printers utilize layers of plastics and metals to make custom decor as well as building materials. Not long ago, new manufacture technologies such as 3-D printing and laser cutting were confined to one-off prototypes and large-scale bulk manufacturing. However, with reduced prices and greater accessibility, mass manufacturing has evolved to mass customization and new techniques that challenge the way we think of style — and sometimes the designer.

Since the 25th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) opens to the public today in New York, we checked into see a number of the latest ways designers are employing these new manufacturing techniques.

ICFF 2013
Date: Open to the public just on Tuesday, May 21
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Telephones: $60. More information

Chris A Dorsey Photography

More than 500 exhibitors and 26,000 designers, producers and distributors from around the world have descended upon the Javits center in New York to preview, buy and sell the latest in furniture and decoration ideas. Major names mingled with independent and up-and-coming designers, like the founders of 3-D design studio Nervous System, Jesse Louis-Rosenberg (right) and Jessica Rosenkrantz (not pictured).

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Nervous System is interested not only in only designing products for individuals to buy, but also in distributing its work online for a collection of interactive applets that clients can use to manage their own personalized goods. The booth shows off unique home products such as Orb lamps ($169 to $200) made with 3-D printing techniques.

“We began in 2-D using tools such as laser cutters and water jet,” says Louis-Rosenberg, “but making forms such as these were complicated and difficult using conventional techniques.”

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Nervous System’s goods, such as these Hyphae lamps, are manufactured from Shapeways, an online marketplace allowing anyone to make custom layouts, then make and market a product with 3-D printing technology — more on this in a moment.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Chris A Dorsey Photography

“Just in the past couple of years has the ability to 3-D print metals come into play, altering the notion of this 3-D printer for a prototyping device, therefore opening the door for printing final goods,” says Nervous System’s manufacturing and retail supervisor, Lia Beauchemin, with a background in jewellery design.

“With the 3-D printing, there are no repeats. Everything is 100% unique, which is something that really brings people to us,” she says. “That uniqueness and customization is at the crux of this 3-D printing flourish. It brings up questions such as, Who is the designer?”

Chris A Dorsey Photography

About Those 3-D Printers

Firms like MakerBot, which generated the first mass-market personal 3-D printer, and Shapeways have made 3-D printing much more accessible. This is actually the MakerBot Replicator 2, which retails for $2,199.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

The MakerBot Replicator 2 printer utilizes a moving head to put down layer upon layer of melted filament vinyl to create the object. The vinyl filament is offered in a number of colors and finishes, such as matte, translucent, metallic and black. Other kinds of 3-D printers emit layers of powder and resin.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Also displaying at ICFF is Netherlands designer Dirk Vander Kooij, who is using 3-D printing on a larger scale — believe hangers, a rocking chair along with a dining area. His system involves a massive robot that is much like the MakerBot but utilizes a mind to dispense plastic and publish larger furnishings for the house. Vander Kooij utilizes recycled plastic from old toaster to publish his products.

The picture on the wall shows the massive robot 3-D printer printing a chair.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

This is a lamp called the Satellite, which Vander Kooij printed using plastic recycled from railings.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

More New Technologies on Display

Three-D printing is just 1 technique that innovative designers are utilizing to expand their creativity and showcase new designs to the public. Laser and water-jet cutting, as well as computer numerical controlled (CNC) milling, are a couple of techniques also being emphasized at this year’s fair.

All these laser-cut pendant lamps, fabricated by Graypants, are manufactured of repurposed cardboard.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

In the next several years, this rapidly improving technology is likely to reevaluate the making of furniture and home decoration.

Here a water-jet-cut aluminum pendant lighting, Juno, has been constructed out of its packaging. These fittings are designed to be flat packed for transport and constructed by the client.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

And here are just two constructed pendant lamps, the Echo and the Juno.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

This custom table is constructed of Baltic birch plywood; the pieces were made using a ShopBot PRSalpha Buddy CNC router. Employing the latest Radiolaria furniture website by Nervous System, anybody can enter their own layout and watch since it’s generated based on their inputs.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Lighting designer Tom Dixon’s stall has a pop-up fabricating unit featuring Trumpf and Brooklyn-based fabricator Kammetal. Visitors can observe the live assembly of laser-cut faceted spheres made of brushed steel.

These more accessible tools enable Dixon and many others to efficiently create unique products for individual clients, rather than having to undergo bigger companies heavily invested in industrialized production.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

More: Watch more snapshots from ICFF | Upholstery in 3-D Comes to ICFF 2013

Show us Are you experimenting with a new manufacturing method? We’d love to see it in the Comments section below!

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