Joris Laarman is a Dutch designer who is experimenting with 3D printing techniques to create futuristic chairs. He therefore uses his MX3D-Metal printer, which is able to draw lines in space and create complex designs. His latest chair is called the Makerchair, which is a downloadable chair, consisting of 202 jigsaw puzzle pieces. Laarman encourages people to 3D print the chair themselves, which you can do right here.
He calls the Makerchair the first “crowd fabricated” chair ever made, as he made the chair thanks to crowdfunding. Because it’s a jigsaw chair, it consists of 202 puzzle pieces, but after a recent improvement Laarman reduced this number to 77 parts. Most 3D printers are able to print all these parts, and after they are printed, the pieces can be assembled in order to create the chair. Just like a real puzzle. The artist estimated it might take about 10 days to get the chair printed, so this will likely be a puzzle that will take you a lot of time to finish.
Joris Laarman currently has an exhibition at New York City’s Friedman Benda Museum, where he exhibits many futuristic furniture pieces, such as a 3D printed bench and a small variety of chairs. Visitors are also able to take a look at the MX3D-Metal printer over there, which is an orange robotic arm using stainless steal and other metallic materials to create its 3D printed pieces of furniture. The artist is a 3D printing pioneer, as he has been using the technique since 2006. The exhibition, called Bits and Crafts, runs through June 14th.
“When people think of digital fabrication, they usually think of 3D printing,” said Laarman to Coolhunting. “We were all a bit bored with all the tiny keychain-sized things people were making so we really tried to push it to a higher level by using real materials like wood and metals.”
Credits images: Joris Laarman.