“It’s Love” 4D Printed Lamp from DC for Life

3D printing and art, as we’ve seen, certainly go hand in hand–and the same can be said for the even newer 4D technology. Objects printed using 4D techniques are able to change their forms and dimensions according to environmental factors, like the 4D printed Kinematics dress that comes off the printer in one small piece and can be shaken out into a life-sized wearable, movable dress.

Taiwan’s DC for Life, an extension of Digital-Can, has been presenting impressive 3D printed creations for over a decade now, noting that “DC for life provides the 3D manufacturing service, the marketplace and community, empowering designers to bring their ideas to life a lot easier.”

One of the designers working with DC for Life, Tseng Yung-Ling, has degrees in jewelry design and metalwork arts, and worked as an assistant professor for Chaoyang University of Technology’s art department; now, she is a teacher of metal techniques in Taiwan, where she hopes to promote industry growth, working with Zamama design studio.

Working with DC for Life, Yung-Ling has created “It’s Love,” a dynamic and lovely 4D printed lamp piece that evokes ancient Chinese design and the complexity of love.

The imagery of the piece is meant to evoke the interplay of light and shadow in love itself. Once the lamp, printed in one compressed piece with about a 16cm height, is picked up, it lengthens immediately and can be locked into place to form a chandelier-like fixture.

“It was printed with other items together and it took around 30+ hours. But we estimate on it own it should take a little under 20 hours to be printed.” Harrison Chu of Digital-Can told 3DPrint.com. “From an efficiency point of view, printing a piece that can minimize the space it needs to be printed in, that is an economic plus. In addition, the light’s ability to expand and contract plays on the idea of growth & love.”

Chu told us the lamp was printed on their EOS P. “It’s Love” is available for sale through DC for Life for $52,660 TWD (about $1,720 USD). The lamp is so lightweight it is listed as having 00kg in weight, and it is made in Taiwan with about a 10 day lead time. Its full dimensions are 29 x 29 x 51 cm.

Of its design process, Chu was able to fill us in on some of the particulars:

“Our company collaborates with designers and utilize 3d printing as a medium for their ideas. During our brainstorming sessions, we were looking to incorporate some of the 3d Printing trends like 4D or biomimicry. In addition, we encouraged to look within our own culture for inspiration,” Chu noted.

“‘It’s Love’ exhibits a technique in 3D printing known as 4D printing – where pieces can transform its properties &/or structure. It was printed (no assembly required – aside from putting in the lightbulb) to a height of around 16 cm and can extend to around 50cm. Its design has declaration of love in older Chinese font in its pattern. Its pattern consists of 3 chinese characters: 我愛你. Almost like an anagram, you can read it: 我愛你, 愛你, 我愛, 你愛, 你愛我, giving you many different declarations of love. Drawing from the chinese culture also, the piece itself resembles a chinese lantern & its folding properties. ‘It’s Love’ is a perfect blending of where the future is heading but also remembering where we came from.”

Several of the innovative 3D printed designs available from DC for Life can be seen online at their Instagram and Facebook pages, and are available for sale on their website. Let us know what your favorites are in the It’s Love 4D Printed Lamp forum thread at 3DPB.com.