Turning technological limitations into design features
Printing fantastical forms via laser sintering, popularly known as 3D printing, often requires support structures during the production cycle that are eventually disposed off. We reimagined these supports as objects themselves, resulting in this unique design collection that overcomes the limitation of the technology.
Supporting Designs
MATr is a family of design from the moment it is conceived. The objects are designed to hold one another in position like packaging structures, preventing breakage during production and post-process handling. Once printed, the supports are extracted to give a basket, a bowl, a vase and a lampshade.
Optimised by Design
To save costs, the 3D printing industry manually arranges objects from different projects to print in a single machine cycle. MATr takes this practice a step further. Its four objects are designed like Matryoshka dolls, allowing them to be nested and printed at one go, incurring almost the same machine time and expense if producing any one of the items alone.
Handpicked by a Legend
MATr was selected by Lidewij Edelkoort, the world's pre-eminent trend forecaster for fashion and design, to be included as part of her curated collection for Rado's "Designing Lightness" exhibition in Basel, Switzerland. It is also included in the Alchemist collection by Industry+.
MATR 3D Printed
MATR is a project to challenge the frontiers of 3D printing – designing from the unique constraints of additive manufacturing. It is a collection of 4 objects printed concurrently, one within another, for mutual support to enable fantastical forms that can’t survive the usual printing process. The technique minimises costs and time of printing because the shapes nest, reducing the overall print height and the footprint of 4 objects into one. MATR was selected for exhibition as part of the Alchemist collection by Industry+ and also as part of the curated gallery for Rado’s ‘Designing Lightness’ by Li Edelkoort.
ClientDonn Koh StudioServices3D Printing, Algorithmic & Generative 3D CAD Design, Product Design, Material & Technique ExplorationYear2015Design DirectorDonn KohDesign LeadDonn KohTeamLee Si Min, Jolene Ng