With Milan Design Week 2025 kicking off subsequent week, we thought it might be alternative to revisit previous editions of the furnishings and design present—the most important of its sort globally—to see the ways in which 3D printing has been spotlighted through the years. VoxelMatters has been protecting Milan Design Week for a decade now and has been fortunate to see the evolution of additive manufacturing in design mirrored there by means of cutting-edge and attention-grabbing merchandise and installations. Listed below are a few of our favourite 3D printed tasks from years previous.
2024
Final 12 months, Milan Design Week guests had been wowed by a big 3D printed pavilion made by Dutch firm Aectual. The set up, referred to as Bar Infinite, was constructed from over 30,000 Tetra Pak drink cartons and—as the corporate says—was meant to “stimulate conversations round infinite materials (re-)use.” Bar Infinite additionally featured pendant lighting made by Signify (a part of its Philips MyCreation vary) in cooperation with designer Basten Leijh. The design for the lamp, which was constructed from sustainable bio-materials, was impressed by cloth and textile layering, becoming seamlessly in with Aectual’s textured bar.
2023
Milan Design Week 2023 had many 3D printed merchandise on present, from elegant 3D printed lavatory fixtures by GROHE, to lighting options from Les Jardins – Aix en Provence, to the Maserati Gran Turismo One Off Luce with 3D printed parts. One in all our favourite tasks of this version was a set of ornamental cushions with 3D printed textiles made by French model Atelier des Refusés. The gathering, made in collaboration with Stratasys, is known as “Biodiversity” and was impressed by the world of fungi. 3D printing enabled the design model to not solely create a singular texture and visible impact on the house items, but additionally meet their very own zero waste mission.
2022
Milan Design Week 2022 showcased an important array of 3D printed furnishings, together with the very comfy SLOPE chair made by OECHSLER. The chair, made utilizing Multi Jet Fusion, was notable for integrating 3D printed cushioning. The consolation of the seating resolution achieved by tuning 3D printed lattice sizes and strut thicknesses, not not like OECHSLER’s method for automotive seating. The SLOPE chair, which VoxelMatters’ Co-Founder Davide Sher was fortunate to attempt, encompasses a steel rack and 3D printed seat pads, 3D printed lattice pillows, 3D printed connectors and simply swappable textile covers. Notably, all elements of the chair could be dismounted and individually recycled.
2019
2019’s Milan Design Week featured a couple of huge 3D printed set up. The primary was a bar constructed by Italian firm Caracol, which makes a speciality of multi-axis robotic extrusion AM. The bar, which regarded out over the Porta Nuova District in Milan, was reportedly the “first bar ever to be utterly 3D printed by a robotic arm system”. Additionally on show was a really superior set up, Conifera, which was introduced by COS and designed by architect Arthur Mamou-Mani (lately named as one of many 20 for 2025 World Design Congress Trailblazers). The piece was composed of 3D printed bricks constructed from a bioplastic materials utilizing the WASP 3MT 3D printer and took over the Palazzo Isimbardi, making a bridge between the previous and current in addition to between structure and nature.
2018
Rewind again to 2018, when building 3D printing was far much less superior than it’s right this moment. Now image strolling by means of central Milan and seeing a big 3D printed home being constructed on website. It’s no marvel that this mission, spearheaded by CLS Architetti, Arup and Cybe, was a standout. The home, dubbed 3D Housing 05, spanned 100 sq. meters and featured a front room, bed room, kitchen and loo. The partitions had been 3D printed utilizing Cybe’s building 3DP know-how and had been made to be disassembled and moved, demonstrating the flexibility and sustainability of 3D printed housing.
2017
Zaha Hadid Architects, a British structure agency based by the famend Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, impressed guests of the 2017 version of Milan Design Week with an intricate and innovate sculpture measuring almost three meters in top. The piece, named Thallus after the Greek work for flora, was an exploration of generative type and sample. In follow, the sculpture was made utilizing hot-wire slicing and six-axis robotic 3D printing, which extruded seven kilometers of fabric in a steady line, looping and curving the fabric leading to a lace-like sample.
2016
9 years in the past, Italian designer Giulia Ber Tacchini achieved a 3D printing “first” by making a sequence of steel 3D printed hangbags. The purses, a part of the designer’s Maissa assortment, had been designed in Grasshopper and 3D printed from copper utilizing SLM know-how. If you happen to’re pondering {that a} steel purse is likely to be a bit heavy to tote round all day, the purses stay light-weight due to the generative grid design. Ber Tacchini additionally created just a few fashions that built-in steel 3D printed decorations onto a extra conventional purse design. On the time, the 3D printed purses had been retailing for as much as €1,200 (they’re now listed on the Maissa web site for €1,590).
Looking out for AM at MDW 2025
For these fortunate sufficient to attend the upcoming Milan Design Week 2025, be looking out for the most recent 3D printing functions and installations. The occasion, which showcases the most recent in furnishings and design improvements, all the time has one thing nice on provide. If you happen to aren’t in a position to attend, tune again in subsequent week for protection of the commerce present.
