Clerkenwell Design Week 2014: Stockholm architect and designer Hanieh Heidarabadi has created a brass pendant lamp with the intention that people will 3D-print their own shades.
"The idea was to combine 3D-printing technology with craftsmanship to make lamps," Tehran-born Heidarabadi told Dezeen. "I wanted somehow to include the end-user, so everyone could produce their own lamp. You buy the brass tube and then you can 3D print your own lampshade – if you want to."
Visually referencing 1950s hanging microphones, the basic construction of each Make Lamp comprises a brass tube, steel thread and screw-nuts. "I made the brass tubes with a musical instrument maker in Stockholm – he usually makes trumpets and saxophones," said Heidarabadi.
The lampshades are then 3D-printed in polyamide using selective laser sintering (SNS) and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so customers can choose their own. "The lampshades are only 0.8 millimetres thick, so they're very thin - they diffuse the light in a nice way," Heidarabadi said. "Currently I produce two shapes, one cylinder shape and one that's more round."
But Heidarabadi is keen for people to get more involved in the design and making process: "My project is a study and experiment in how you define a final product. The idea was to allow the end customer to choose, and eventually to 3D print, his or her own lampshade."
"With the laser 3D printing technique, anyone can produce any shape," she added. "So who owns the idea of the design? Do you experience the product differently if you are involved in the design process?"
Heidarabadi studied molecular biology before she studied architecture and says this informed her interest in materials and techniques. "I like the mix between craftsmanship and technology," she said. "I like the contrast between materials and the contrast between techniques. I like the way that you can use techniques and materials you wouldn't normally think of."
The Make Lamp was launched at Clerkenwell Design Week's Platform exhibition in London earlier this week – the first time Heidarabadi has shown her products in the UK.