Freedom of Creation co-founder and 3D Systems creative director Janne Kyttanen tells Dezeen that he believes one day everyone will have easy access to 3D printing in the first of our series of video interviews with pioneering figures in the world of additive manufacturing.
We visited Kyttanen during a road trip across the Netherlands and Belgium, where many of the major players in 3D printing are clustered, as part of our research for Print Shift, the one-off magazine about 3D printing that we launched earlier this year.
In the movie, Kyttanen says that the actual technology behind additive manufacturing hasn’t changed much in recent years, but the interest in it has rocketed.
The Cube desktop 3D printer by 3D Systems
“When it comes down to the technologies themselves, fundamentally nothing has changed,” he says.
“The biggest change that has happened is the awareness. People know that these things exist; they know the possibilities. Also, the ease of use of software: pretty much everything is getting easier and easier and once that happens the masses start picking it up.”
In 2011, Kyttanen’s design studio Freedom of Creation, which pioneered the use of 3D printing technology to create consumer products, was acquired by American 3D printer manufacturer 3D Systems and he now acts as creative director for the company.
Having been at the forefront of 3D printing since the 1980s when the company’s founder Chuck Hull invented stereolithography (SLA), 3D Systems has recently turned its attention to the consumer market. In 2012 it launched the Cube, an affordable desktop 3D printer promising the kind of plug-and-play simplicity we have come to expect from the electronic products in our home.
“We want to put 3D printing in every home,” says Kyttanen. “A lot of the home machines that came on the market were open-source and people could tinker with them. What we’re trying to do is to make products where you can just open the box, take out the machine, plug it in, send a file and it starts printing. That’s truly what’s happening with the Cube.”
The Cube is a simple fused-deposition modelling (FDM) machine, which builds up objects layer-by-layer using a plastic filament fed into a heated print nozzle. “The Cube is the most plug-and-play 3D printer on the market at the moment,” Kyttanen claims.
“Everyone will get interested in design and making things instead of just being consumers and buying things,” he says. “The designer’s role [will be] merely creating better templates for all these people.”
He continues: “If you want to customise something for yourself, now you have the ability to do that. You can make any shape you want. Now everybody has the power to do whatever they want, with very easy tools.”
It is this ability to customise products, Kyttanen says, which will drive the demand for 3D printing in the home.
“People always ask me what would be the killer product for the technology, what would sell the most,” he says. “I always tell people that I don’t think it’s a product at all, I think it’s the empowerment itself.”
This coat stand by Stockholm designer Kyuhyung Cho appears to defy gravity, with a hovering metal ring keeping four diagonal sticks from crashing to the ground.
Kyuhyung Cho designed the prototype with solid metal rings at the base and the waist, connected by a diagonal steel tube.
Additional wooden poles can be slotted through the ring so garments and accessories hang from the ends.
Cho says the design was “inspired by surrealist René Magritte, to create poetic imagery in our everyday life.”
The wooden poles are painted white while the steel elements are black, so the trick is revealed once the viewer takes a closer look.
Japanese studio Tetsuo Kondo Architects teamed up with environmental engineering firm Transsolar to encase a cloud inside this transparent two-storey cube (+ slideshow).
The cloud effect was formed by pumping three layers of air into the space. Cold dry air went in at the bottom, while hot humid air was fed into the middle and hot dry air was pumped in at the top.
Photograph by Ken’ichi Suzuki
This produced a canopy of clouds at the centre of the cube, which visitors could climb through using a central staircase.
“The temperature and humidity inside the container are controlled to keep the clouds at their designed height,” explained Tetsuo Kondo.
The transparent cube surrounding the cloud was built from a framework of metal tubes, with cross bracing that allowed the structure to respond to outside wind pressure.
“The edges of the clouds are sharp yet soft, and always in motion,” added the architect. “Their colour, density and brightness are constantly changing in tune with the weather and time of day.”
We created a small bank of clouds in the Sunken Garden of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. The clouds billow softly in a compact, transparent container and can be seen from the entrance hall, exhibition galleries, outdoor plaza, and other parts of the museum.
Climb the stairs inside the clouds’ container. When you climb beyond the clouds to reach the top, the museum, the surrounding buildings, and the sky stretch out above the clouds. The edges of the clouds are sharp yet soft, and always in motion. Their colour, density and brightness are constantly changing in tune with the weather and time of day. The temperature and humidity inside the container are controlled to keep the clouds at their designed height. The air inside the container forms three distinct strata, one cool and dry, at the bottom, a warm and humid middle stratum, and a hot and dry stratum at the top. The warm, humid layer is where the clouds form.
The transparent container is constructed of 48.6 millimetre diameter pipe. The elastic material added to the mid region, at a 6 metre ceiling height, makes the structure as a whole responsive to wind pressure. That elastic material also makes it possible to build the transparent container of nothing but thin pipes. The double layers of vinyl sheets dividing the strata ensure stability of temperature and humidity inside the structure.
The constantly changing clouds are both soft structures and part of the natural environment that surrounds us. It is not the structure alone but the invisible differences in humidity and temperature and the weather, the time of day, and other aspects of the surrounding environment, all influencing each other, little by little, that make this work an artistic whole.
Cloudscapes is, in effect, an experiment in creating a new type of architectural space, one that achieves integration in engagement with its environment.
Collaboration with Transsolar/Matthias Schuler Location: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Program: installation Completion period: December 2012 Architect: Tetsuo Kondo Architects Structural Engineer: Konishi Structural Engineers
Some products own the rare ability to combine magic and technology, craftsmanship and digitalization, uniqueness and industrial processes—but Emmanuel Babled’s latest project, called “Osmosi,” incorporates all of that. Babled’s…
The World Design Capital selection committee said that they are not discouraged by the lack of submissions to this fifth edition and will “leverage this opportunity to focus its assessment on the viability of the application”.
Taipei’s application has passed the first evaluation phase. ICSID and WDC officials will conduct a two-day visit to the city to assess if it qualifies for the title, which will be announced in September. It’s not yet clear what will happen if Taipei fails to qualify.
World Design Capital was established in 2008 to “focus on the broader essence of design’s impact on urban spaces, economies and citizens”.
Next year the city of Cape Town will become the World Design Capital 2014, following previous winners Helsinki, Seoul and Turin. The South African capital beat off competition from shortlisted rivals Bilbao and Dublin to be named World Design Capital back in 2011.
In its first round of evaluation towards the selection process of the next World Design Capital (WDC) designated city, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) announced on 6 August 2013 that members of the Selection Committee identified the City of Taipei as the only municipality to move on to the next phase in the process towards becoming the WDC 2016.
The Selection Committee convened on 5 August to discuss the merits of the application brought forward by the City of Taipei with the aim of evaluating its contents against the stringent criteria that awards this designation to a qualifying city on a biennial basis. Having passed the initial scoring, it was decided upon careful consideration that the application would move on to the next phase, which would involve a two-day onsite evaluation.
The site visit will enable further information to be gathered in an attempt to provide the WDC Selection Committee with a more thorough understanding of the proposed programmes, as well as aim to address questions raised during the first round of evaluation.
The 2016 designation will mark the 5th cycle for the WDC programme established by Icsid as a year-long platform demonstrating the value of design when utilised by cities to empower revitalisation strategies from a social, cultural and economic perspective.
The WDC Selection Committee was not discouraged by the one bid submitted but rather leveraged this opportunity to focus its assessment on the viability of the application. The same rigour will be applied to ensure that the proper evaluation metrics are enforced to determine whether the City of Taipei will meet all criteria.
A comprehensive report on the findings will be compiled by members of Icsid’s WDC Organising Committee and shared with the WDC Selection Committee following the city visit. The final deliberation and official announcement is expected to take place in September 2013.
Product news: Swiss furniture brand Vitra has put its latest range of updates and reissues from the archive of French designer Jean Prouvé into production (+ slideshow).
Newly available pieces include reissues of the Fauteuil Direction and Fauteuil de Salon armchairs, plus Tabouret Solvay stool. There are also updated materials and finishes to the Standard chair, EM Table and Compas Direction developed with Dutch designer Hella Jongerius and Jean Prouvé‘s family.
Standard SP chair
The Standard chair was originally designed in wood with thicker back legs, as these take more weight. Vitra is now producing the design with a plastic seat and back as a model named Standard SP, which has matte powder-coated metal legs.
EM Table and Standard SP chairs
The plastic elements can be mixed and matched in various colours, and can easily be replaced.
EM Table
Now available with a solid wood top instead of veneered surfaces, a version of Prouvé’s EM Table has been created with a powder-coated base to match the Standard SP chairs.
Table Solvay
Among Prouvé’s designs for chemical company Solvay, Table Solvay looks similar to the EM Table but was created with wooden legs due to the metal shortage in the Second World War. This design now can now be obtained in three different types of solid wood.
Compas Direction
The metal legs of the Compas Direction desk are designed to look like the arms of a drawing compass and this design now also comes with a solid wood top.
Fauteuil de Salon
Archive designs that have been put into production include the Fauteuil Direction and Fauteuil de Salon cushioned armchairs, plus the Tabouret Solvay solid wood stool.
Tabouret Solvay stool
All these additions were shown as prototypes in Milan this spring and are now available to order from Vitra.
Prouvé Collection Update, developed by Vitra in Switzerland
In the fields of design, architecture and the art of engineering, the Frenchman Jean Prouvé ranks among the most versatile and innovative minds of the 20th century. From letter openers to door and window hinges, lights, furniture, façade elements, prefabricated houses, modular construction systems to large trade fair and exhibition constructions, his work includes almost everything that can be designed and requires an industrial manufacturing method. In his work as a designer, Prouvé was never searching for his own signature, but was instead striving to create logical and useful answers to required functions.
Vitra has been producing Jean Prouvé’s furniture since 2001. In cooperation with the Prouvé family and the Dutch designer Hella Jongerius, the colour palette of the entire product family has been given a makeover. Reserved but contemporary shades give the Prouvé classics a fresh new image. “My father never used primary colours, but preferred a sophisticated palette of shades. Of course – he was the son of a painter!” – Catherine Prouvé.
Prouvé tables are now available with solid wood table tops and the Table Solvay is the realisation of one of Prouvé’s table designs with a wooden base.
Standard chair
Standard SP, 1934/1950
A chair is subjected to the most strain on its back legs as it must carry the weight of the upper body. Jean Prouvé’s concise interpretation of this simple recognition can be seen in the Standard chair: whereas tubular steel is sufficient for the front legs that are subjected to less strain, the chair’s back legs form a voluminous hollow body that transfers the strain to the floor.
Standard SP (Siège en Plastique) brings the iconic chair up-to-date without changing anything about its form: A seat and backrest of robust plastic in a carefully chosen colour palette gives Standard SP a contemporary look. The plastic parts can be combined in various colours and easily switched out or replaced. To match the plastic surface, the bases feature a resistant, matt powder coating and, last but not least, Standard SP is an economic alternative.
To match the Standard SP, a new version of Jean Prouvé’s EM Table is being launched with an HPL table top and a base that is in the same structure and colour of powder coating as the chair.
Table Solvay
Table Solvay, 1941
During the years of 1941 and 1942, Jean Prouvé’s studios planned and realised various interior design projects for the chemical company Solvay. Among his many designs of this time, there was also a wooden table that is a prime example of Prouvé’s creations: The necessities of statics and the force path are clearly reflected in his design details – similar to the later EM Table that differs from the Table Solvay due to its metal table legs. When the Table Solvay was created during World War II, there was a metal shortage and so the table legs were made of wood.
Table Solvay’s table top is available in three different kinds of wood and the base is made of the same wood. The solid oiled woods give Table Solvay a high-quality homely feel and compensate for its cool design.
The round table Guéridon has also been given a makeover: the legs, materials and surfaces are the same are those of Table Solvay, but it has an extended diameter and height.
EM Table
EM Table, 1950
At the beginning of the 1950s, Jean Prouvé developed the EM Table for the “Maison-Tropique” project. The table , defined by his design right down to the very last detail, follows Prouvé’s typical aesthetics of necessity. It illustrates the force path and the static connections in a way that is otherwise only featured in engineering construction.
EM Table is now of even higher quality thanks to its new table tops in oiled solid wood. The solid wood table tops in oak or walnut give the table an exclusive note and offer a very pleasant feel. The height of the base is adjusted to contemporary requirements and the colour concept has been revised.
The EM Table can be ideally combined with Prouvé’s Standard chairs, but also with various other chairs. Another new design is the EM Table with HPL table top and a base that is powdercoated in the same colours and structure as the base of the Standard SP chair.
Compas Direction
Compas Direction, 1953
Jean Prouvé developed the Compas Table in various models around 1950, applying the construction principles that he is known for. All share elegantly splayed, narrow legs in metal, a formal reminder of a compass – in French, “le compas”.
The oiled solid wood table tops give Compas Direction an individual touch. With its compact dimensions, the table is ideal for the contemporary, largely paperless, home office, where it cuts a fine figure, particularly in combination with the Fauteuil Direction.
Fauteuil Direction chair and Compas Direction table
Fauteuil Direction, 1951
Fauteuil Direction is a well designed chair in which you can sit comfortably at the table. It pays homage to Prouvé’s typical philosophy of focusing on design factors.
The little chair is perfect for the home office where, particularly in combination with the small desk Compas Direction, it creates an individual touch and can also be used as a comfortable dining chair. In addition, Fauteuil Direction also looks great in elegant lobbies, restaurants or waiting areas.
Fauteuil de Salon chair
Fauteuil de Salon, 1939
Fauteuil de Salon combines plain surfaces into a complete architectural form with a comfortable seat and backrest. Rediscovered in the archives of the French design engineer, the chair’s colour was adapted for modern tastes. Thanks to the armrests in oiled solid wood and Prouvé’s typical philosophy of focusing on design factors, Fauteuil de Salon goes perfectly with other products in the reworked Prouvé Collection.
Tabouret Solvay stools
Tabouret Solvay, 1941
Tabouret Solvay is a simple, robust stool made of solid wood with a signature design that is visible at first glance: Jean Prouvé developed it, applying the design principles that he is known for. Thanks to its level seat, Tabouret Solvay can also be used as an occasional table.
Woodchuck has already made waves in the tech case industry with its wooden skins for phones, tablets, laptops and headphones, but this is their first go at something more sturdy. The new ,…
Développé par l’ingénieur estonien Indrek Narusk et propriétaire de Velonia, ce prototype sortira selon son créateur en avril. Un vélo hyper design dont une des particularités est d’être construit de façon symétrique autour de deux tubes en inox. Un travail innovant et très élégant à découvrir en images dans l’article.
Opinion: Slovakian designer Tomáš Libertíny, who wrote to Dezeen last month accusing a major advertising agency of exploiting his work, reflects on the nature of copying in design and argues that imitating the work of others should be an integral part of any designer’s education.
Inspired, and having thought about the subject of ethics, originality, progress and education in design, I decided to write a short reflection in the spirit of essays by French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne.
I once heard someone say that the single cause of all the world’s evil are the words: “This is mine!” Picasso said that good artists copy; great artists steal. This is well-known and recently over-quoted thanks to the success of Steve Jobs with Apple. It is also tragically misinterpreted. It is a tongue-in-cheek phrase that insinuates that great artists build on the work of others without anyone spotting it.
Actually, it is more that we forgive them due to the personal spin they give to the bounty. In the light of the recent Tour de France doping scandals, one could say that good cyclists cheat; great cyclists don’t get caught. I am forced to ask myself the same question as Mugatu in the 2001 comedy movie Zoolander: “Doesn’t anyone notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” Ironically, he claims he invented the piano-key necktie.
American art critic Arthur Danto pondered over the success of Andy Warhol’s Brillo Box. This work would not have been possible without the Brillo box design by James Harvey. I imagine it should have been Harvey and not Valerie Solanas who shot at Warhol. The success of pop art is largely thanks to the appropriation of work of often anonymous designers created for the purpose of a vicious battle for consumers.
Nonetheless, it certainly brought Warhol fame and eventually stardom. His version of the Brillo box also became an icon and a dead end. However, its real relevance is the ecstasy of the mind that hangs in confusion. We love to hope; we love the game. The mystery of David Lynch’s movies has the same mind-tickling effect. It is not surprising, since we celebrate entertainers over caretakers.
It seems to me a sign of foresight that we should recognise the path that people walked and pawed before us. That foresight looks back to secure the future. It was Neil Armstrong who took the first step on the moon but that step was the sum of all the steps taken before him by all humankind (not only those of NASA). Similarly, designers are nothing as individuals.
I want to argue that in our education we should learn from the past and not be afraid to learn by copying others. This type of learning is taking a step further in a purposeful direction, acknowledging the source and paying tribute to the ongoing building of knowledge that defines culture.
Our knowledge of Greek sculptures is through the Roman copies. The actual number of surviving ancient Greek originals is pathetic. By copying, the Romans have not only preserved but also learned and improved. Even the famous statue of Laocoön, admired by Michelangelo, is a copy.
The age-old idea of ownership and possession is a consensus upon which the majority of societies agreed to act to bring order into the growing complexity of relationships. We protect the whole by limiting the individual. Copying is not an act of stealing, but it can give the same advantage.
One can copy someone or something in order to:
» learn about the subject and understand it » pay homage to it » acquire the same privileges as the subject and exploit it for personal gain.
The nature of the world is such that all of these are part of life and always will be.
Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote in his essay titled The Flower of Coleridgethat for the classic mind, literature is the essential thing, not individuals. You could say the same of design.
My training was classical. When I was about 14 years old I got an assignment for an art class I was privately attending to copy a painting. I chose Portrait of a Sculptor, believed to be the self-portrait by Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Del Sarto. There was a limitation: I had to do it in tempera on paper. It was difficult since tempera acts differently to oil, obviously, but the lesson was priceless. My confidence in the medium had risen. Immediately following the copy of a painting was an assignment to copy nature en plein air. I sat by a tree and looked at the structure, texture and weight of its intertwined branches.
Graphite on paper, 1984, Tomáš Gabzdil Libertíny
In the same way, I observed my own hands. I started to see more the longer I looked at them. It was a great exercise in discipline, focus and of course draftsmanship. I felt that I was starting to understand the relationship between skin, flesh and bones. Later, when I was in the first year of my formal design education, we visited a medical school where they fished human body parts from the pool of formaldehyde for us to draw. A human torso was delivered to us on a trolley and there I was, seeing an expired human engine and tracing it on a piece of paper.
Graphite on paper, 2001, Tomáš Gabzdil Libertíny
In general, this exercise eventually teaches the mind of any student to look at things. It doesn’t substitute natural talent but nonetheless establishes neural connections that will be prone to recognise relationships, patterns and hierarchies in the world observed. These neural connections may be permanent or flexible, have style or no style (one may argue though that everybody has a style but the difference is quite clear when a rigid and fresh mind approaches a problem).
To learn is to love. Our initial response attaches us to the subject. However, it is the continued study of the subject “as it is” that evolves into love. Bruce Lee in one of his televised interviews says: “If you put water into a cup it becomes the cup. Water can flow or water can crash – be water, my friend”.
Spiritual writer Anthony de Mello puts it differently. He says when you cut water, the water doesn’t get hurt; when you cut something solid, it breaks. You’ve got solid attitudes inside you; you’ve got solid illusions inside you. This is what scientists strive for: an unobstructed view. When you truly love something or someone you must first see it.
A common practice of artists of the past was learning through apprenticeship from an older master. Michelangelo did his time as an apprentice too. He preferred copying paintings from churches rather than learning at school. But which of the world’s renowned design academies today have their students copy, for example, Charles Eames chairs? Or a software code in reverse engineering? How about an assignment to write a story like William Shakespeare? Wouldn’t that be a great way to really understand the inner workings of his writing style and language?
In the case of Eames, when I say copy, I mean literally copy and make an exact replica with the resources one has at his or her disposal. Looking at pictures doesn’t teach anyone much more than information about the weather. It is just information. Following design blogs and current trends does not make one a better designer; it makes one a better-informed designer. Despite the fact that information and skill are both pillars of knowledge, there is fundamental difference between them.
Copying is wrong when it is pretending to be original; then copying becomes faking. A fake is the cardinal sin of design, a non-progressive parasite. On the other hand, copying to learn and improve is the most characteristic trait of human behaviour. Unlike non-human primates, which don’t have the cognitive capacity to improve upon something learned, we do. We copy our parents and friends as children in order to become our unique better selves. That is exactly what designers should do.
Unfortunately, our era pushes individuals to perform at early stages as original creators not understanding that the history of design is the history of re-design. Heading towards the new for the sake of the new is counterproductive. Look, for example, at the three volumes of Phaidon Design Classics. An icon is a stage in the process of re-design that reaches its peak; it cannot be a better version of itself. Originality is a myth. Discovery of the not-yet-seen is not. Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson said that there are no foreign lands, it is only the traveler who is foreign.
It was Giorgio Vasari with his Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects who introduced the myth of an artist. It was Michelangelo, who witnessed his Pietà attributed to Gobbo from Milan, who decided, in the quiet of the night, to carve his name upon it. Vasari distinguished between “disegno” and “invenzione”, understanding them as mother and father of the work of art. He saw “invenzione” not as new, but better. He recognised, however, that not everybody was able to reveal the better and it took a genius to fish it out from the pond of knowledge. Hence not everybody is Michelangelo – but we are all fishermen.
Students of design, copy to learn and remember that you are part of the history of design. We are trying to land on Mars.
Le studio Atelier Heiss Architects a réadapté cette maison à Vienne en gardant la façade d’origine mais en créant en parallèle un intérieur et un jardin résolument moderne, amplifiant ainsi le contraste entre les deux types d’architecture. Un très beau projet de rénovation à découvrir en images dans la suite.
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