As part of the London Design Festival, Canadian designer Philippe Malouin partnered up with the Staffordshire based ceramics company 1882 Ltd to create Dunes, an analogue 3D printer which creates crockery from piles of sugar.
The machine itself features a box frame and a wooden turntable that is powered by a small motor. When activated, the machine spins, and a stream of sugar spills out onto a bed of silicon, which then set to create a variety of intricate designs. Malouin believes his 3D printer creates shapes that could not be designed by hand or a computer. The results themselves are an unusual combination of craftsmanship and mechanical precision. While the process is automated, each plate or bowl is entirely unique and can be purchased through the company's website.
Presented at the Sand & Clay exhibition in Bermondsy, Dunes is a novel and refreshing take on 3D printing. Much like the 3-B Printing Project before it, Dunes toys with the expectation that 3D printing and design must be technologically complex.
Dunes
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