Hasta La Ideas

Interview: the designer of the original 1959 MINI “would have a lot of respect for the cleverness” of the latest incarnation of the car, according to Adrian van Hooydonk, head of design at MINI parent company BMW Group (+ slideshow + interview).

“I think he would simply be happy that MINI as a brand is alive and kicking today,” Van Hooydonk told Dezeen at the global launch party for the new MINI, held in London last night. “He probably would not have imagined that in his wildest dreams.”

The launch was held on what would have been the birthday of Greek-born engineer Alec Issigonis, who was born in 1906 and died in 1988.

“I think he would have a lot of respect for the cleverness of the engineering,” said van Hooydonk. “I think he would also respect us for being such a custodian of the original idea. Doing a car that is as compact as this in today’s world is actually quite an achievement.”

The car was originally launched in 1959 by UK conglomerate British Motor Corporation, with Issigonis’ compact design, which featured a revolutionary space-saving transverse engine, remaining on sale more or less unchanged until 2000.

The iconic British marque was acquired by German car brand BMW Group in 1994 and relaunched in 2001. Yesterday’s launch is the second major overhaul of the car since then.

“I think it has worked out very well,” said van Hooydonk of the acquisition. “BMW has been very respectful of MINI’s history.”

The new-look MINI is longer, wider and taller than its predecessor, partly due to modern safety regulations, van Hooydonk said. “I think the MINI is the most compact vehicle that any car company can do today because the safely requirements have become much tougher.”

The new car takes many design cues from the 1959 original, including short overhangs, round headlights and an enlarged front grille.

“[The grille] is now larger; it still has a MINI typical shape and it now refers to the MINI Mark 1, which also had a very large front,” van Hooydonk explained. “The headlamps and tail lamps are still referring to the iconic shapes but they are now packed with very modern LED technology.”

“To make a MINI recognisable as a MINI, you need to use full surfaces; rounded surfaces,” he continued. “But we’ve added sharp lines so the overall effect is one of a crisper car. I feel it’s a tighter car so the perception of quality and the actual building quality have gone up.”

The new MINI was developed by MINI head of design Anders Warming under the guidance of van Hooydonk. The car features a new platform, which it will share in future with a new generation of BMWs.

Van Hooydonk said that BMW Group investigated sharing the MINI platform with other car brands to save costs but in the end decided to develop the platform themselves. “We simply found that no one was able to do compact cars like MINI do,” he said. “Nobody had a package or the proportions that we need to do a MINI, so we decided to do it on our own. “

Here’s an edited transcript of the interview:

Marcus Fairs: It’s 19 years since BMW Group bought MINI and 12 years since the car was first relaunched. How has the marriage between a German corporation and a British marque worked out?

Adrian van Hooydonk: I think it has worked out very well. Of course it needed a Dutch guy in between to sort of translate…

Marcus Fairs: And a Danish guy [MINI head of design Anders Warming]?

Adrian van Hooydonk: And a Danish guy. It needs some neutral elements from small countries that have no car industry to make ends meet. BMW Group actually did very well because I think it was a decision with a lot of foresight, to keep hold of MINI, because I think people are going to look for smaller cars in the future.

People want cars that have a strong character. People don’t want boring cars. It’s perfectly set up for years to come. BMW has been very respectful of MINI’s history and the same is true for Rolls Royce [which BMW Group bought in 1998] so I think that’s been part of the success story. This is why MINI is still here today.

Marcus Fairs: What’s new about the new MINI?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: Well of course to make a MINI recognisable as a MINI, you need to use full surfaces; rounded surfaces. But we’ve added sharp lines so the overall effect is one of a crisper car. I feel it’s a tighter car so the perception of quality and the actual building quality have gone up.

On the front, we have redesigned the grille. It is now larger; it still has a MINI typical shape and it now refers to the [1959] MINI Mark 1, which also had a very large front. The headlamps and tail lamps are still referring to the iconic shapes but they are now packed with very modern LED technology. It has daytime running lights so you will be able to recognise the MINI day and night.

In the interior, the level of luxury has gone up considerably and it’s packed with very clever technology as well like internet connectivity and a heads-up display that you will see the most relevant navigation on. So I think we have upgraded the new car both inside and out while retaining this friendliness that MINI stands for.

Marcus Fairs: It’s also bigger. MINI is not such a small car any more. Why is MINI getting bigger?

Adrian van Hooydonk: I used to own and drive an original MINI when I was a little bit younger. I actually fitted in that car and I have to say I had one accident with that car; it was written off completely. I was happy that I got away unharmed and that answers your question pretty much. I think the MINI is the most compact vehicle that any car company can do today because the safely requirements have become much tougher and I think this is a good thing.

MINIs today are very safe and are filled with airbags and are designed and engineered to face things that our customers never want to experience. But I think any MINI will always be the most compact offering in its segment.

Marcus Fairs: What about the platform [the chassis and other major engineering components]?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: We developed a completely new platform, not just for this MINI, but the MINI was the lead car for this set of mechanicals. It will also lead to some new BMWs; some front-wheel drive BMWs. We looked at working with other brands to share the platform but in the end we developed this platform from scratch on our own.

We set the parameters in terms of proportions. As a design team, we were able to get the proportions for the new MINI just the way we wanted it, with very short overhangs. It’s a very compact vehicle; it’s slightly wider than the previous car. What is good for MINI will also be good for BMW later on.

Marcus Fairs: Why did you want to work with other car brands and why did that not happen in the end?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: If you are able to work on an architecture that will lead to, let’s say, twenty vehicles or so, that will give you some economy of scale. Our customers are prepared to pay a premium but that’s not unlimited. So we need to find a way to make it affordable and do more cars.

Doing one type of architecture will allow you to do that but as we scanned the industry, we simply found that no one was able to do compact cars like MINI do. Nobody had a package or the proportions that we need to do a MINI, so we decided to do it on our own.

Marcus Fairs: So this will lead to a new type of BMW based on this shared platform? Will BMWs and MINIs share other parts?

Adrian van Hooydonk: We have already shown a concept car called the Active Tourer, which will be a new type of BMW that will launch in the near future, which will also have front wheel drive. But if you know the concept car, then you will see that it looks completely different. Not even the gearshift or any button or any element from the MINI will be carried over to the BMW. It’s all happening underneath the skin; so in some suspension parts or mechanical parts where we were then able to get some economy of scale [there are shared parts] whilst keeping the brand identity of MINI and BMW very pure.

Marcus Fairs: BMW is now positioning itself as a mobility solutions provider rather than a car brand. It’s about helping people make mobility choices rather than simply selling them cars. How does that translate to MINI, which is a fun, urban brand?

Adrian van Hooydonk: That’s a very good question. MINI is a very urban brand so it’s designed for people who live in the city; people who lead a very active life. You can tell from looking at a MINI that the people that drive it like to enjoy life. MINI is not as serious as many of the car brands out there.

I think new mobility would fit the MINI brand. As it stands, the MINI product line-up actually uses far less fuel than the BMW brand does. So far, we don’t feel there’s an immediate lead to electrify a MINI; also a smaller car is a little harder to do.

We are launching a whole new brand, BMWi, to deal with that identity and we went a long way towards achieving zero emissions, making the car out of carbon fibre with the i3 [electric car] or reinventing the sports car with the 8 [plug-in hybrid concept car]. We learned a lot from those projects and that knowledge will certainly filter back into both the MINI brand and the BMW.

Marcus Fairs: If Alec Issigonis, who designed the original MINI, was to see the new MINI, what would he say?

Adrian van Hooydonk: He would probably say, in all honesty, that a lot of design has gone on, knowing that he wasn’t a designer – he was an engineer. I think the same is true for all products in the world today. I think he would have a lot of respect for the cleverness of the engineering. I think he would also respect us for being such a custodian of the original idea.

Doing a car that is as compact as this in today’s world is actually quite an achievement. I think he would simply be happy that MINI as a brand is alive and kicking today. He probably would not have imagined that in his wildest dreams.

Marcus Fairs: What’s the relationship between your design team at BMW Group and Anders Warming and his team at MINI? Is the new MINI their design or yours?

Adrian van Hooydonk: It’s his team’s design and we are more than colleagues, we are friends. He started a little bit later than I did in the company but we worked together in Design Works, [BMW Group’s] Californian studio. Now we are both in a position that we can give a direction to whole brands.

I like to give the design teams a lot of freedom. If there is a disagreement then that’s okay because people have different opinions about design. If they have no opinion or they start agreeing with me, that would be the moment that I would start worrying.

I know that Anders is an extremely talented designer because I’ve seen him sketch and I’ve seen him grow. And I know that he works the same way that I do. I feel very privileged to now have guys like him in charge of each of the brands that I lead. It makes my life easier and more rewarding, working with people like him.

Marcus Fairs: What’s the next step?

Adrian van Hooydonk: Well today we’ve just launched the new core car. It’s the anchor for the brand so you have to be respectful and careful. Now for the next cars that you’ll see coming from MINI are around the core cars. I think you can expect each of these cars to move away from the core cars slightly: more distinct identities for the other products, a little bit more about today’s MINI family which is very closely related we feel, to the core car. We want it to really grow as a family.

Marcus Fairs: What kind of family are you talking about?

Adrian van Hooydonk: Well that’s a question that I’m not really at liberty to answer now. You know that today the MINI family consists of seven cars. We are still investigating what the family will consist of. But the new family members that will come out will have more of a stand-alone character. You will recognise them as part of the MINI family, but each of them will have a more distinct character of their own which I think is the next step for the MINI brand.

The post Alec Issigonis “would be happy that MINI is alive
and kicking” says BMW design chief appeared first on Dezeen.

Interview: with a new monograph and an exhibition in New York, Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld talks to Dezeen about his 40-year career, his love of Radiohead, and the buildings he has yet to design (+ slideshow + interview). 

“I don’t like to look back, to be honest,” he told Dezeen, speaking from Espasso Gallery in New York, where the A | Z by Isay Weinfeld exhibition opened last week. “But one of the things that I am very proud of is the wide variety of work.”

“I am curious about things, I like to design things I haven’t done before,” he said. “I would love to design a brothel or a gas station.”

Isay Weinfeld is one of Brazil’s leading contemporary architects. Born in São Paulo in 1952, he studied at the School of Architecture at the city’s Mackenzie University and launched his multidisciplinary practice in 1973.

Working predominantly in his home country, he has designed numerous private residences as well as apartment buildings, hotels, shops, banks and restaurants.

The New York exhibition also marks the launch of a new monograph by Raul A. Barreneche about Weinfeld’s commercial projects. However Weinfeld was keen not to present photos or models of his work at the show, explaining: “I am not looking for new clients!”

Instead, the gallery features films of his buildings, plus a cradle and a coffin. “This idea expresses my wish to design from the beginning of life to the end,” he says.

The exhibition, A | Z by Isay Weinfeld, is at Espasso, 38 N Moore Street, New York until 1 December. The monograph is published by BEI Editora and is also available through Espasso.

See all our stories about Isay Weinfeld.

Here’s an edited transcript of the interview:

Alyn Griffiths: Do you have a particular visual language or material palette?

Isay Weinfeld: No never. I run from belonging to any school or any style, I hate to be labelled, I prefer not to have a style, I am more free. I choose materials according to the project, according to the clients, the country, the project that I am designing and I love all the materials.

Alyn Griffiths: How does it feel to look back over your career?

Isay Weinfeld: I don’t like to look back, to be honest. But one of the things that I am very proud of is the wide variety of work. I could never stay designing the same thing in my life or be specialised designing houses or hotels or restaurants. Since the first year I tried not to take jobs that were related to the last one.

I am curious about things, I like to design things I haven’t done before, to learn more about it and this is what moved me. I remember one summer a private foundation, a family of art collectors from the south of Brazil, called me to design a very small cultural centre for their foundation. They told me they needed to have a small art gallery inside.

I said I already designed two art galleries, and they also said they needed a bar, and I said I designed some bars already. Then they said they need a restaurant inside, but I already designed this. Then I noticed I know how to manage some of my instruments of work.

Alyn Griffiths: It sounds like you’ve designed everything!

Isay Weinfeld: No, not yet! I would love to design a brothel or a gas station.

Alyn Griffiths: How do you choose which projects to take on?

Isay Weinfeld: I pay a lot of respect to the people who find my telephone number and ask me to design something. This respect is maybe the most important thing in my relation with my clients. I would never design a house that I want to design, in the way that I want to design. I always try to design a house they want but through my eyes. This is a very subtle difference that is very important to me.

It’s very common to hear an architect saying that clients ruin their work and it’s never happened [with me] – the client always adds to my work because I always choose them very carefully. I select not because I am arrogant, but because I’m honest. Maybe I’m not the right architect to do your work, maybe I’m not capable.

If you are a good client for me, and I am a good architect for you, we for sure will be happy together. But we need to have respect. The client also adds, mainly in a private house, because it’s their house, not my house. The client is giving you an opportunity, so to make your own masterpiece is disrespectful in my opinion.

Alyn Griffiths: Is that an unusual approach?

Isay Weinfeld: Yes, it’s a big problem. At least in my profession, it’s all about yourself and I am just a servant, I am hired to serve somebody with pleasure.

Alyn Griffiths: Are there any other architects whose work inspires you?

Isay Weinfeld: No. I have three or four architects that I love but I’m not inspired by them. If I love arts and music and theatre, I am much more inspired by the other arts than architecture.

Alyn Griffiths: How do those translate into your work?

Isay Weinfeld: Oh I don’t know, I don’t know how but it’s very clear and very present. Because I see a lot of relation between all this art. One day I designed a disco that was completely dark but very colourful inside. The sink and the restrooms, the tiles, some furniture, the whole thing was black. But certainly we had these colours all over like a rainbow.

Then I heard a track by my favourite band Radiohead called Motion Picture Soundtrack and it was unbelievable – the translation of that work. It was not the music that inspired my work but it was exactly the same, it was music that started completely black and then turned into a rainbow of colours at the end and I put this music in my office for the rest of the team to hear and to see if they felt like me.

I always see relations between all the visual arts – you have now at the Tate Modern a wonderful exhibition by a Brazilian artist called Mira Schendel. She’s my favourite artist and she died many years ago but I am always trying to do what she achieved in her life; very strong and minimal work. She is a great influence in my work also.

Alyn Griffiths: What do you think about current contemporary Brazilian culture?

Isay Weinfeld: I think many things are happening but maybe these were happening before. It has waves, I think that the world is paying more attention because now it’s Brazil and in a year it’ll be the Philippines. But in Brazil, São Paolo is always an energetic city with a very creative feeling, many movements of architecture and music are always booming. I can see, as a Brazilian, many interesting movements, all over Brazil.

Alyn Griffiths: There seems to be a renewed interest in Brazilian architects such as Lina Bo Bardi.

Isay Weinfeld: Yes, it’s a pity that people are only now knowing who Lina Bo Bardi is. She is my favourite Brazilian architect and her work is amazing and I am very glad that the world is paying attention to her work. It is a mix of very strong Brazilian soul with pure lines and she worked very intensively in Bahia and with the people of the state. She was Italian and they have a very strong relation with the culture of Brazil.

Alyn Griffiths: There seems to be such a disparity between wealth and poverty in Brazil – can architecture help bridge that gap and address some of the other social issues in Brazil’s cities?

Isay Weinfeld: It’s difficult, but maybe yes. I don’t believe that architecture has this power. We know that very young people are redesigning some very poor villas and I know that the poor people, when they see a new building ready, they want to move to the new one, not because it’s new but because it has a better space and a better way to live. This is why I think architecture helps to create better places for people to live in.

Alyn Griffiths: Your 360º Building tries to provide more outdoor space for people in urban areas – how could that be applied to the rest of Brazil’s overcrowded cities?

Isay Weinfeld: This is just a small example, we have also the problem with security so it was a way to have your house above in a building, with a garden or a courtyard the same size as the space inside but open and more protected. This is something that is missing in Brazil because of security; to have your own small house with a garden, so this offers an answer to people who want spaces like this.

Alyn Griffiths: Why did you choose to get involved with that project?

Isay Weinfeld: With a building, when you first have some ideas and for commercial business, it’s difficult to have a real estate guy with something good in mind that is not just to earn more money. I am working now for a company who think about doing something interesting in the city for people to change the relation with the city again so buildings don’t have so many fences, so many guards.

They want this and they are trying to do things better. It moves me to work and to do something that is much more than a private house, where I can interfere in the city and try to make new ways of living and help people live better.

Alyn Griffiths: What else are you working on at the moment?

Isay Weinfeld: I think some eight or ten houses. We are doing more than ten buildings. One is starting now: its a competition that we won in Monaco for a residential building for the Royal family. It was a private competition between ten offices that we won one and a half years ago. They are now starting to build it. Another building in Montevideo in Uruguay, it’s also a residential building. Three hotels, one in Brasilia and two in the state of Bahia, one in city of Salvador, the other one in Trancoso.

The client in Brasilia is private client that I designed a house for twelve years ago. They are lawyers but they love architecture. In the city of of Brasilia, it’s divided in the main axis of the city, and there’s a place just for hotels and they have the last lot for a hotel in Brasilia. They called me to design a huge executive hotel that’s very well designed, that we are doing. It’s 300 rooms and will be ready next year. There are many other things including two houses in Miami and a house in the Carribbean, and I’m starting something here in New York also.

Alyn Griffiths: Are you involved in any projects related to next year’s World Cup?

Isay Weinfeld: No but I’m trying to see my idol Neymar – he’s a genius! When he was playing in Brazil, I used to go to Santos where he played. I saw Pele many times in my life but after Pele, this is the guy.

Alyn Griffiths: Tell me about the scope of this exhibition at Espasso in New York.

Isay Weinfeld: I don’t know if its an exhibition but its the launch of my new book in New York that is a selection of commercial works. The previous one was just residential and this one is commercial. We have here in New York a big space, to make this launch of the book, they suggested to me to show all forty years of my work, showing photos, drawings, models, everything about my whole life designing. But this is not me in this way and I’m not this kind of guy who wants to come to New York or London to show myself in this very obvious way and I am not looking for new clients! I don’t have any interest to show my work like this. Then I decided to think about something more certain and concise about my view of my profession.

So I made a small pavilion with two rooms inside a white box, and it has two pieces inside that express exactly what I think about life and my profession. I designed a cradle made with Brazilian wood and some fabric inside and placed it in a square, completely black room with a very subtle light above it. Then you have a black corridor that opens suddenly to a very bright white room where there is a coffin, using the same fabric as the cradle.

Apart from these exhibits, we are also showing a part of a new project that we are doing, mixing architecture, cinema and music that is my great passion. It’s a very short film, about my works, but there’s no commentary because it’s very short, it’s two minutes maximum, showing my view of my works. There are now 40 films ready, there will be between 80 and 100. But we have 40 ready and we are showing 14 of these films on a loop here in the exhibition. This project will launch in December in Brazil and we are also designing an app. Every two weeks it will upload a new film in your iPhone.

Alyn Griffiths: What is the significance of the crib and the coffin in the Espasso gallery?

Isay Weinfeld: I always try to design everything in my profession: if I design a house, I design the interiors, the bell, everything. I see architecture as a whole thing, as if I was an art director. This idea expresses my wish to design from the beginning of life to the end.

The post “I’d love to design a brothel or a gas station”
says Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld appeared first on Dezeen.

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News: 3D-printed nose and ear replacements for accident victims and people with facial disfigurements could be just a year away, according to a design firm working on a new generation of prosthetics (+ interview).

Patients could get a customised nose or ear printed within 48 hours, rather than the ten weeks it takes to make a hand-made prosthesis, Fripp Design & Research believes.

“It’s time saving and cost saving,” the company’s founder Tom Fripp told Dezeen. “Particularly, the time-saving is great for the patient. Traditionally to have one made you’re waiting for about ten weeks for a hand-made prosthesis. From start to finish we would scan, design and print within 48 hours.”

Fripp said that the technology could be ready this time next year, although getting the health services to embrace it was the biggest challenge. “I think to actually get anywhere from now to [having an] available service you’re talking about a year,” he said. “It requires some sort of acceptance into the health services. That’s the biggest barrier to it.”

The project is being exhibited as part of the 3D Printshow Hospital at the 3D Printshow in London. The exhibition, which explores how 3D printing is transforming healthcare, also features a bio-printer that could print human cells that could eliminate the need for animal testing of new drugs.

Fripp is also working on 3D-printed eyes, which could be produced for less than £100, compared to the current price of up to £4,000 for existing ocular prosthetics.

UK-based Fripp uses colour 3D printing to create soft-tissue prostheses that can be used by patients who are missing sections of their face. Each custom prosthesis printed with bio-compatible starch and silicone will match the wearer’s skin colour, and take less than two days to produce.

“We reproduce the colour, which is an exact match for the skin tone,” Fripp told Dezeen. “Following that, we have to colour code it for the printer because if you send any colour to any standard printer, you get a totally different colour.”

The current process is lengthy and costly and involves taking an impression of the area to create a mould for the prosthesis, which then has to be hand painted and modified during fitting.

To speed this up, Fripp Design & Research are collaborating with researchers at the University of Sheffield to map the shape of the patient’s trauma area and capture skin colour data in an instant using a setup of multiple digital cameras.

The prosthetics are then designed using previous scans of the patients, if available, by mapping features from the patients’ relatives or simply taking stock files of parts like noses or ears.

“[We use] a graphic clay that we can carve away and morph to the trauma area,” said Fripp, “so we make sure we have a dead accurate fit.”

The shape is then printed with the precise colour profile using a Z Corp Z510 colour 3D printer. This will cost around the same as a handmade prosthetic, but once created the file can be used to generate multiple copies for replacements at a significantly lower cost.

Fripp admits his products are less realistic than the current models: “They’re not as high quality as a hand-made one which really are beautiful, but a patient can have this as an interim until their handmade one is actually produced.”

He says they have tested and fitted a prosthetic for a patient but that the project is awaiting medical accreditation. He believes that the people who are going to benefit the most from this process will be “individuals currently in the developing world who go without because they don’t have the money to pay for a skilled technician to build one.”

Fripp’s company is also working with Manchester Metropolitan University to produce stock batches of prosthetic eyes that patients could buy for just £30, which they also hope to be selling in a year’s time.

He also claims that his company has developed the first machine to 3D-print entirely in silicon, which will help remove the white lines that form around the edge of the protheses due to the silicon reacting with the starch.

For our one-off 3D-printing magazine Print Shift, we reported that the technology is making strides towards medical applications such as printing organs. Scientists have also printed a bionic ear that can hear radio frequencies beyond a human’s normal range.

Here’s the full interview we conducted with Tom Fripp:

Dan Howarth: How you go about printing a nose or an ear?

Tom Fripp: It starts off with a data capture, half of it, because we deal with patients who are sometimes very nervous, sometimes very agitated, we have to use a structured light system, its an instant capture. People who are nervous tend to move around and fidget, lasers take too long to produce them because they don’t stay still. So we use a colour photogrammetry system. It’s an array of cameras mounted in pads that are calibrated to know where each pod is sat. They all take a picture at the same time then they can work out the physical geometry and at the same time capture the colour.

That gives us a mesh of the area of the trauma. What that doesn’t include obviously is what you’ve got to produce to replace any trauma area which might be due to surgery or through disease. The next thing to do is to create that geometry, we can use either stock prosthetics that we have as CAD files or we can image a friend or family member and we will adjust it all to fit in 3D CAD. Or we could use CCRMI data if thats available.

There’s quite a lot of ways that we could reproduce, lets say for example a nose to make sure that it fits. We use a voxel modelling system for modelling so it’s pixels rather than surfaces or solid modelling, it uses a graphic clay that we can carve away and morph to the trauma area. So we make sure we have a dead accurate fit. Then we have to make sure we get the colour right and we do this by taking a special photometer reading from the patient, all captured at the same time. Then we reproduce the colour which is an exact match for the skin tone. Following that, we have to colour code it for the printer because if you send any colour to any standard printer, you get a totally different colour. Then the final stage is that we produce it, we actually 3D print the full colour part in starch because it’s a stable, lightweight and porous material. The processing involves forcing medical grade silicon into the starch, that brings out its final qualities and then the prothesis is ready to go to the fitter to be adjusted and fitted to the patient.

Dan Howarth: What are the benefits compared to the current methods of creating protheses?

Tom Fripp: It’s time saving and cost saving. Particularly, the time saving is great for the patient. Traditionally to have one made you’re waiting for about ten weeks for a hand made prosthesis. From start to finish we would scan, design and print within 48 hours. They’re not as high quality as a hand-made one which really are beautiful, but a patient can have this as an interim until their handmade one is actually produced.

The other benefit is that it is much more cost effective. Although the first one would cost about the same amount which is between £1500 and £3000 depending on where you are in the country. Our first one would cost about the same because of the design side. For a repeat handmade one you’re talking up to a thousand pounds. For our one it comes down to about £130 because we’ve just got a CAD file, we just press print again.

Dan Howarth: Has this been tested and used on patients yet?

Tom Fripp: No, we have fitted it to a patient to see what their response is to it but its not actually been provided out there as prosthesis yet. The main reason is that it’s difficult for products to get into the medical profession. We are an industrial design company, we’re finding an awful lot of resistance to it because traditionally, things come from surgeons and clinicians having an idea and developing it rather than an external design company doing the same.

Dan Howarth: How long do you think it will be until it’s taken up?

Tom Fripp: I think to actually get anywhere from now to available service, you’re talking about a year. It requires some sort of acceptance into the health services. That’s the biggest barrier to it.

Dan Howarth: What sort of printers do you use to print out the files?

Tom Fripp: We use Z Corp Z510s deliberately because its a much more of an open system and we can play about with the materials before, the more recent ones are more cartridge based.

Dan Howarth: How does the prothesis then attach to the face?

Tom Fripp: There’s a variety of ways. A lot of patients will already have an implant placed on the good tissue. So any bone underneath the trauma area that can be used, they all have a steel implant drilled into the bone then we can capture the orientation and location in our scanning process. Then we would produce the prosthesis with magnets actually inside the prosthesis which would just clip onto the implants. But the prosthesis is also made with a fine fitted edge which means that you can place a medical grade adhesive around this edge that reactivates when you clean it. So you can actually take the prosthesis off overnight and allow air to get to any scar tissue, clean it and then clip it back onto the implant with the medical adhesive, with a little bit of make-up round the edge, it hides it.

Dan Howarth: Who is going to benefit the most from this?

Tom Fripp: The people who are going to benefit the most from this are the individuals currently in the developing world who go without because they don’t have the money to pay for a skilled technician to build one. There are areas where technicians aren’t actually available and they would have to wait for up to a year or so to visit a more developed country where you get academics going over and starting up small clinics. It happens very regularly but you still have to wait a long time, and in most cases some still can’t afford it.

Dan Howarth: Whats next after it gains medical accreditation, could you then develop it to create other body parts?

Tom Fripp: Yes, we are currently constrained on the physical parts that we can produce so for example limbs are a bit troublesome because of their physical size. The starch material is very delicate when it comes out of the printer so a large limb might collapse when you actually try to process it. We have looked at other parts, things like replacing breasts, they are particularly difficult to produce because of the physical size of the moulds required to make them, make them incredibly heavy to process. The process is straightforward but there’s quite a lot of work to do on the material side before we can produce something that large.

Dan Howarth:: Have you got anything else in the pipeline?

Tom Fripp: For the last year and a half to two years, we’ve also been developing ocular prosthetics, replacing eyes for people. You have a similar situation with the handmade prosthetics, we’ve developed a way of full colour 3D printing them without them costing about £3000-4000, we can produce them for less than £100.

Dan Howarth: That works in the same way as the noses?

Tom Fripp: Kind of. With the ocular prosthetics, we’re actually producing them as stock parts so they’re a standardised set of 3D printed parts. At the moment, all of the ocular prosthetics are handmade and very expensive to produce whereas ours are far quicker and far cheaper. So ours will be about £30 and we can make approximately 150 in three hours on our system.

Dan Howarth: Is this project in the same stage as the noses?

Tom Fripp: The product is more refined actually and the process is pretty much complete. The materials are standard, there’s no issue with the materials. We’re currently working with Manchester Metropolitan University on that project. We starting to scale up the process for production. There’s an awful lot of interest in the product particularly from India.

Dan Howarth: How long do you think until that might be put into mass production?

Tom Fripp: I would imagine within 12 months, we should be producing this product and its should be going out to India.

I should mention, one of the problems with the soft tissue prosthetics is that starch and silicon don’t get on too well. So when you over-stress the prosthesis, you get a small white grazing line on it, which isn’t too much of a problem if you’ve got a temporary prosthesis. The only way to get around that is to eliminate the starch from the process, so for the last six months or so, Fripp Design as a company has developed its own new type of 3D printer which actually prints directly in silicone, which is a complete game changer because nobody is actually able to print in silicone and we’ve discovered a way. We have a test rig up and running at the moment and we’re producing samples and filed the patent about two weeks ago.

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“within a year” appeared first on Dezeen.