Nagami to Feature a ‘Brave New World’ with 3D Printed Chairs at Milan Design Week 2018

We often see artistic new 3D printed creations and innovations introduced at Milan Design Week, including work by London-based architecture and design firm Zaha Hadid Architects. At this year’s show, which begins next month, the first collection by new Spanish brand Nagami will be on display. Titled ‘Brave New World‘ after Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, the collection will feature several 3D printed chairs, two of which were designed and manufactured by Zaha Hadid Architects.

According to Nagami’s website, “We bring 3D printing and robotic manufacturing to large scale products and objects with a wide range of customisation possibilities.”

Nagami’s official debut at the upcoming show will also include a 3D printed stool, from Welsh artist and industrial designer Ross Lovegrove, and an additional 3D printed chair created by London designer and architect Daniel Widrig.

Ross Lovegrove has created a 3D printed stool for Nagami’s collection.

At the show’s Nagami Space in Spaziotheca, Piazza Castello 5, there will be a series of lectures about computational design and new technologies including 3D printing. Architects, artists, engineers, product designers, and other professionals using computational design in their work will present, and Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects will give one of two keynote speeches.

Nagami founders Manuel Jimenez García, Miki Jimenez García and Ignacio Viguera Ochoa said, “We design products that until now were just waiting for the right technology to come to life: not only objects that you can hold, but also that you can feel and experience as part of your environment.”

Zaha Hadid Architects designed and created two 3D printed chairs for the ‘Brave New World’ collection, called Bow and Rise. In making the chairs, which were 3D printed via pellet extrusion from PLA, the firm took design inspiration from natural marine growth processes.

Dezeen notes that through the color gradients used in designing the two 3D printed chairs, and the strangely beautiful patterns they form, Nagami “intended to redefine the traditional spatial relationship between furniture and its setting.”

The 3D printed Robotica TM stool was built from a rotational geometry. Lovegrove used robotic technology and botanical inspiration to make the stool, which makes parallels between the artificial manufacturing found in the robotics field and the natural programming of nature. A robotic arm performing a continuous rotational process was used to 3D print the stool and, as Lovegrove told Dezeen, the stool’s inverted, rhythmic form “would be difficult to produce by conventional means.”

According to Dexigner, the 3D printed Robotica stool has an “adaptable character.” The stool’s seat was made using heat-proof silicone inserts, which means it can easily be used as a table to place and eat hot food. The versatile piece allows for seating, functional display, or simply an aesthetic piece of décor.

Lovegrove explains more about his work in this video from Dezeen:

The final 3D printed furniture piece in Nagami’s ‘Brave New World’ collection is Widrig’s Peeler chair, which was also created by an industrial robot.

Widrig describes the design as being “skin-like,” and the chair is made up of three pieces of PLA plastic shells that are 7mm thick.

Widrig said, “The chair has been designed to satisfy both the ergonomic constraints of the human body, as well as the ergonomics of the robotic arm that prints it.”

The designer wanted his 3D printed Peeler chair to consume as little material waste and machine time as it could, as well as master and overcome any limits set down by additive manufacturing technology.

Daniel Widrig’s 3D printed Peeler chair.

If you’re interested in seeing the 3D printed furniture featured in Nagami’s first collection, you can check out Milan Design Week, which runs April 17-22. The furniture in ‘Brave New World’ will be located in the brand’s pop-up showroom in the Brera Design District.

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