Digital DIY brings modular furniture to the next level

The basic question that drives Gale's project is one that looms very large in our research activities, because it is one that must receive a complete, if not definitive answer, if Digital DIY is to really become a mass phenomenon:

"how we can make use desktop 3D printers as best as we can in our homes. This is a very current problem, because in the past the main focus was on rapid prototyping but in the future it is on rapid manufacturing. This is because the price of the FDM printers is decreasing greatly. One of the possible solutions is the joint design. If we want to create larger objects with our printers, we should print only the small joints and we will be able to connect bigger parts from different materials.

 

Semi-standard, rectangular pieces of wood (that are trivial to make at home even from thrown-away furniture) and custom, 3D-printable joints.. really make Ikea-style furniture assembly a (difficult...) thing of the past:
"I optimised my joint collection to 3D printers. It is allowed to connect 8 millimetres plywood sheets to each other in different angles. It contains 90, 45 and 120 degree elements. One important feature of the design is that you do not have to screw or glue the parts. It is possible to build furniture, installations, partitions and anything else. It only depends on your creativity. With these experimental objects I wanted to draw attention to the importance of changing our thinking as to how to build something with 3D printers."