Dirk Vander Kooij: Groovy 3D Print-Inspired Recycled Plastic Chairs
Even though most of us are hearing a lot about 3D printing in the last year or so, it’s actually been around for much longer (albeit only available to large companies with huge machines capable of it); Dutch designer Dirk Vander Kooij is creating furniture inspired by the form that came from a three-decade-old 3D printer.
“Older machines were less precise, which means thicker lines but also very little waste of material,” Vander Kooij told Dwell magazine. The designer came up with the idea for the Endless chairs as part of his graduation project from the Design Academy in Eindhoven.
According to Vander Kooij’s site: “The title ‘Endless’ indicates an infinite loop of plastic and the endless possibilities. He has developed an old industrial robot reused and programmed so that furniture ‘print’ was possible. In a seemingly endless movement the robot extrudes recycled plastic into chairs or other furniture.”
We aren’t the only ones to take notice of this cool chair and process; last year the Museum of Modern Art bought Endless pieces for their collection.
Check out the supercool video of the robot making the chair below:
Starre Vartan
Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick.com and the author of the Eco-Chick Guide to Life. She's also a freelance science and environment writer who has published in National Geographic, CNN, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, the NRDC, and many more. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her partner and black cat. She was a geologist in her first career, and still picks up rocks wherever she goes.
