Tag Archives: 3D Printed Designs

This 3D printed portable toilet is made from recycled plastic!

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This sustainable toilet is designed to compost solid waste while also tackling the sanitation crisis – using design and technology to do good sh*t! It is a solution that eradicates plastic waste and turns it into a construction material that reduces the load on landfills. The portable toilet is also absolutely beautiful with its white aesthetic and cocoon form! The first 3D printed prototype was produced by an advanced seven-axis robotic printer and is being tested on a construction site in the Swiss Alps.

Created by Spanish design studio Nagami and To: it has been dubbed The Throne and it comprises three parts – a teardrop-shaped body, a dramatic, double-curved sliding door, and a bucket for solid waste. All the parts were printed within three days, including the base and some smaller accessories that were either injection-molded or ordered. It also includes an off-the-shelf separation toilet seat to separate urine from solids for composting.

For the prototype, the teams used discarded plastic medical equipment from European hospitals. “Our treatment of waste, both human and artificial, has a profound impact on the future of humanity and our planet. Since the 1950s roughly 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic has been produced, and only around 9% of this has been recycled; the remainder have been incinerated, piled into landfills, or dumped in our oceans,” said Nachson Mimran, CEO and co-founder of To: Creative Activists.

“The 3D printed Throne has been an incredible challenge for us, working with mechanics, sliding doors, and off-the-shelf products such as a separate toilet. These design components forced us to think in a different, utilitarian way which really makes this proof of concept special,” said Manuel Jiménez García, CEO and co-founder of Nagami.

The Throne goes further in its realization of a circular economy by composting the waste produced by users and using this compost locally. Eventually, the teams want to put the technologies and tools in the hands of local communities. When innovation is shared fairly and the carbon footprint created by logistics and shipping of these products can be greatly reduced. The Throne is just one example of the possibilities of what additive manufacturing can do for scaling sustainable design and development – it’s only waste if you waste it!

Designer: Nagami and To:

The post This 3D printed portable toilet is made from recycled plastic! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This 3D printed urban reef is constructed from mycelium to increase biodiversity in cities!

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Mycelium is a natural material taking over the sustainable design world one industry at a time! A Netherlands-based company is hopping on that train – they are experimenting with mycelium and computational design to create a series of 3D-printed urban reefs that will stimulate water circularity and biodiversity. In simpler terms, your concrete jungle where dreams are made of will be more jungle and less concrete so more living organisms can thrive!

Dutch designer duo Pierre Oskam and Max Latour came up with this innovative solution to make cities more biodiverse. It involves using natural materials to create structural ecosystems that can be integrated within existing environmental elements (eg. fountains). A 3D printer is used to create complex geometrical designs with porous materials like ceramics and composites (made from coffee grounds and mycelium). The moisture in the air is able to pass through and create the perfect environment for various fungi to grow thus bringing the structures to life!

“The most feasible option we are working with is ceramics, but since baking it requires a lot of energy we are investigating more sustainable alternatives,” says Latour. The studio is also experimenting with materials made from coffee and algae. At present, the team has developed two concept products as a result of their research, first in the form of the “Rain Reef” rain collector with an undulating shape that increases the contact area of the water and the potential hatching surface for vegetation.

“It is 3D printed with a porous material (made from a mixture of seeds, coffee grounds and mycelium), which can get saturated with the collected rainwater, making it accessible to vegetation growing on the outside,” explains Latour. “The intention is to develop a printable material which is porous, durable, sustainable and bio-receptive.”

The second product is the “Zoo Reef”, which Urban Reef intends as a substitute for fountains in cities. “There is a lot of potential for biodiversity stimulation around urban fountains,” says Oskam. “We propose a complex labyrinth of spaces which are all interconnected. By differentiation in sizes, orientation regarding sun, wind and rain, varieties of microclimates would develop.”

“Rather than determining top-down which organisms should live where, a range of potential habitats is generated.” They might be early in the research and development phase but Latour and Oskam’s Urban Reef project could have real-world applicators in the future. As an idea, it’s not so dissimilar from a living wall, except in this case the choice of materials and the structural design promotes their integration within cities without human intervention.

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“At Urban Reef we consider the city as a potential habitat to organisms, not exclusively humans,” the duo explains. “We position ourselves as human within the natural environment deviating from the modernist view of the human transcending nature. From that perspective, we aim to gain a profound knowledge of natural processes to both integrate those in our design methods as well as design with ecologies in mind.”

Designer: Pierre Oskam and Max Latour

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These magnetic modular glasses with a hingeless design resolves the most common frame breakage problem!

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MagLeg is a pair of 3D-printed magnetic eyeglasses that allow for hingeless, unrestricted movement of the temples with an ergonomic design.

If you wear glasses, then you know the struggle of keeping them in one piece. All it takes is one wrong move and your glasses are squashed, scraped, or broken. The temples of glasses are especially notorious for breaking off at the hinges. The temples of glasses are flexible to point, but when they’re over flexed to fit larger head sizes, the hinges snap from too much tension. For designers Marc Sapetti and Arthur Carvalho Vieira, this is all too familiar, so they created MagLeg, a pair of 3D-printed magnetic eyeglasses that allow for hingeless, unrestricted movement of the temples with an ergonomic design.

Small magnets are embedded into the temples and rims of MagLeg to connect all the pieces together and these magnets curve upwards only slightly to ensure an upright fit. Sapetti and Carvalho Vieira set out to design a pair of eyeglasses that stands the test of time and wear, looking toward magnetic joinery to bring them there. Each pair of eyeglasses comes in three parts: the isolated frames and two temple legs. Embedding the tip of each temple with small magnets, they connect to each corner of the rims to form a single pair of glasses.

While MagLeg’s construction is unique and unlike any other pair of glasses on the market, their appearance remains inconspicuous. Magnets replace the hinges of traditional eyeglasses, allowing for unrestricted movement at the temples and rims. Following a thorough research period filled with interviews and trial periods, Sapetti and Carvalho Vieira took a human-centric approach in creating MagLeg. The designers note, “We noticed a gap in the glasses industry. These magnetic glasses were developed to address the lack of lasting glasses that also offer stylish design and human comfort. We used our experience from other segments like backpacks and industry-machines to come up with this innovative solution.”

The frames are produced in high volume following a plastic injection template or a 3D printmaking process that uses nylon material to create the eyewear. The designers followed a thorough period of research with trial runs of their eyeglasses on 3D-printed heads to ensure a comfortable, secure fit. Using these construction processes opens the door to customization work that might call for acute measurement adjustments or color changes. The magnetic and modular makeup of MagLeg also makes for easy and long-lasting maintenance, allowing users to reorder individual parts of their glasses instead of having to order an entirely new pair of frames.

Designers: Marc Sapetti and Arthur Carvalho Vieira

These 3D printed needle covers were designed to put children at ease during vaccinations!

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Needles can be scary and I am saying that as an adult, so I can only imagine the fear children must feel. Post the pandemic, there is no choice but to face the fear of needles if you want to stay safe. To make it easier for children to conquer their fears, designer James Dickson created playful needle covers that can help make the entire process of getting vaccinations less daunting.

The children’s needle covers aim to reduce the fear of vaccination by hiding the needle within a form that a child is familiar with. Playful forms such as a plane or butterfly are universal, simple, and engaging for children. The medical professional can simply slide the cover over the needle and proceed with the vaccination. This is not just something that is meant for use during the pandemic but can be a continued use to administer medication through needles whenever required. This could brighten the day for many children who are patients in hospitals and have to stay for a while or even generally for those in the pediatric ward. Needle covers like these make the experience and atmosphere a little less dreary in all clinics and hospitals.

“For the prototyping of the Children’s Needle Covers, I opted for 3D printing with spray paint applied to give the desired color. This is not a final product but a prototype to show the intended form, function, and aesthetics of the Needle Covers,” says Dickson. He started with hand sketches, then moved onto creating small cardboard prototypes, followed by digital 3D modelling. After the CAD was finalized the design was 3D printed and spray painted. Medical professionals can even offer the cover to the child to take back home as a memento and after safely disposing the syringe. I vote for Dickson to create Avengers-themed needle covers next!

Designer: James Dickson

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3D Printed Products designed to exhibit the endless possibilities of this simple yet groundbreaking technique!

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3D Printing is gaining more momentum and popularity than ever! Designers and architects all over the world are now adopting 3D Printing for the creation of almost all types of products and structures. It’s a technique that is being widely utilized in product design, owing to its simple and innovative nature. But designers aren’t employing 3D printing only to create basic models, they’re utilizing this technique in mind-blowing ways as well! From 3D printed artificial coral reefs to a menacing two-wheeler design with 3D printed bodywork, the scope of this dependable technique is unlimited! Dive into this collection of humble yet groundbreaking 3D printed designs!

Hong Kong saw an 80% decline in the coral population in Double Island, Sai Kung, over the past decade and that drove the team to come up with a solution that would not only help that region but also the rest of the world that was blessed with corals. The team from Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and its Robotic Fabrication Lab of the faculty of architecture worked together to 3D print terra-cotta tiles that will act as artificial reefs. The result is a mesmerizing, organic swirl of line and negative space that reads like a burnt orange topographic map—and mimics the natural patterns of the coral itself. Why terra-cotta? It’s highly porous with “nice surface micro-texture” for marine organisms to latch on to, says team member Dave Baker, and an eco-friendly alternative to conventional materials such as cement or metal, the HKU team says.

Austria-based Vagabund Moto is one custom motorcycle shop that keeps pushing the envelope of design, materials, and processes. Their 15th build based around the BMW R nineT justifies the fact, as founders, Paul Brauchart and Philipp Rabl spray their creative magic over the two-wheeler for a facelift that’s so desirable for a speed junkie. The amount of metalwork is owed to craftsman Bernard Naumann! The client asked the team to make this the best ever two-wheeler they’ve ever worked on and the final result is called “Tin Man.” It has an extensive shell of bodywork highlighted by the monocoque tank cover and the seating configuration. It also has an underlying monocoque part that doubles as the under-seat storage. This is the most exciting bit of the bike is the 3D printed remote control that opens up the upper layer moving on hydraulic shocks. When open, the Motogadget dash is visible through the acrylic window in the cover.

Kairi Eguchi’s 3D-printed pen has a pretty unique way of balancing minimalism along with an expressive design. It’s rather simple if you break it down by its cross-section – The pen’s basically square-shaped, but it isn’t just a simple extruded square. Somewhere down the middle, the square profile makes a gradual 180° twist, creating a form that’s wonderful to look at and has a tactile appeal!

They look like wood, feel like it too. Hell, they even have those grain patterns that you associate with wood, but don’t let your eyes or fingers be fooled. This line of homeware designed by Yves Behar’s fuseproject isn’t made from actual wood. The technology you’re looking at lies within the domain of 3D printing, but it’s much more advanced than you’d think. Developed and pioneered by Forust, a subsidiary of Desktop Metal, this 3D printed material is a unique composite of recycled sawdust and bio-epoxy resin… but here’s where it gets interesting. Forust’s printers can actually print annular rings, knots, and grains into the printed wood. These details don’t exist on a surface level either. You can sand them and run a coat of polish over them and they’d look exactly like real wood.

The Art Deco movement of the late 19th century helped create new relationships between architecture and geometry. In a time that was certainly considered flourishing, just before the world wars, Art Deco beautifully combined European sensibilities with Eastern and South-American exotic styles while expressing itself through simple-yet-complex geometric forms and shapes… quite like Picasso’s Cubist art, but with arguably more attention to symmetry and composition. The Arintzea Collection from Muka Design Lab and Gantri pays tribute to Art Deco’s influences within Basque architecture, and it’s 3D printed!

If Adidas is to be believed, they might have created the most advanced running shoe of them all. The highly advanced shoe is deemed to give runners an all-new capability they’ve not experienced so far. They call it the 4DFWD sneaker – crafted using high-tech 3D printed performance technology. Working in close quarters with Carbon, the shoe results from 17 years of athlete-driven data and the Digital Light Synthesis technology coming together to create an advanced Adidas shoe unlike anything so far. According to Alberto Uncini Manganelli, SVP, and GM Adidas Running & Credibility Sports at Adidas, “We’re always looking to combine athlete insights with new and innovative technologies to create the best performance running products.”

The sleekness of the Apple TV remote wasn’t a feature, it was a flaw, and people were constantly complaining about losing their remote and never being able to find it… so when Apple redesigned their remote, many were expecting the 2 trillion-dollar company to address this problem too. However, all Apple managed to do was redesign the remote’s controls by bringing an iPod-style jog-dial on it. For the thousands of people who don’t see themselves buying a new remote just so that they can face the same old problems, Etsy-maker PrintSpired Designs has a neat workaround – a 3D printed case that not only gives the old Apple TV remote some volume and thickness but also allows you to slip an AirTag in so you can track your remote when it inevitably gets misplaced.

The Mickey Soap Dispenser Attachment isn’t an officially licensed product from Disney but is rather a clever fan-made product that retrofits onto most foaming handwash dispenser nozzles (although the designer recommends Bath and Body Works soap bottles). The attachment basically helps distribute the foamed handwash into three large blobs instead of one, making it resemble Mickey Mouse’s iconic circular head and ears (or Deadmau5, if you’re an electronic music aficionado). The 3D printed attachment is pretty simple to install and even simpler to use. It comes in three solid colors (that gold one looks rather nice), as well as two decorated variants that resemble Mickey and Minnie.

Say hello to the Mandalorian smart speaker holder for the 4th Generation Amazon Echo Dot. Inspired by the Star Wars spin-off series, the smart-speaker holder comes 3D printed by Etsy shop Slic3DArt, quite perfectly resembling the Mandalorian helmet. Place your spherical Amazon Echo Dot within its head cavity and you’ve officially got yourself a trophy-head worth showcasing on your mantelpiece or coffee table! The purpose of the Mandalorian smart-speaker holder is purely aesthetic. It doesn’t enhance the speaker’s functions but doesn’t impair them either (it does, however, block the light ring at the base).

Designing new and unique light fixtures is no easy feat though and the designers behind HorizON, a suspension lamp with an elliptical form designed and constructed in Italy’s glass-making capital, Murano, took it upon themselves to completely reimagine the future of lighting design. On the inspiration behind HorizON, the designers say, “HorizON lamp is based on the belief that the industry of the next years won’t only evolve through a constant, technological upgrade of products, but reconsider values such as uniqueness, hand-making, and even ‘imperfection.’” Through HorizON, the creators reconsider design values by transmuting classic, craftsman artistry with 21st-century technological capabilities. HorizON’s final product is comprised of two main parts: a glass bubble crafted through a tried-and-true glassmaking tradition that enwraps its 3D-printed, LED-filled centerpiece.