Luce is a collection of lighting design projects realized with FDM 3D printing. The goal is to give people access to good design, to allow them to self-produce their own lamp using already existing bio-plastic (PLA) in order to make it sustainable.
By analyzing and printing the projects, people will be able to see and understand the design constraints. This gives an educational purpose to the project, because it shows how to use the strengths and constraints of additive manufacturing.
Cross-border/international
Italy
Germany
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
"Luce" is a collection of ambient lamps realized with FDM 3D printing. The goal is to give people a spread access to good design, to allow them to self-produce their own lamp at home, bringing the impact of the transport of goods to zero, and using bio-based materials and additive manufacturing technologies that don't produce waste, in order to make it sustainable.
By analyzing and printing the projects, people will be able to see and understand the design constraints. This gives an educational purpose to the project, because it shows how to use the strengths and constraints of additive manufacturing.
The project consists of a collection of lamps to be printed in 3D, shared with people from all over the world using famous online platform, like Cults3D and Thingiverse. These platforms, frequented by makers community, allw to create a designer profile and insert various projects, with photos, descriptions and CAD models ready to be printed. All the lamps from Luce collection are supplied at an extremely affordable cost (2.49 €) and sometimes even for free, to encourage people to produce their own objects at home.
The library of projects is constantly evolving and expanding. All the lamps are also designed with a view to internal contamination: the assembly system is shared among all the models, therefore the component of one lamp can be coupled to the ones of other lamps. This explerimentation and the self-production are processes of learning and creativity. These aspects give an added value that should not be underestimated.
Self-production
Bio-materials
Additive manufacturing
Zero-waste
Learning
The sustainability of a product is a theme that embraces the entire life cycle. Realizing product at home using bio-based materials drastically lowers the environmental impact of the product.
Starting from production, the use of additive manufacturing technologies makes it possible to produce from a zero-waste perspective. This is a value that industrial products can rarely have. FDM 3D printing, is not only sustainable, it's also pretty common and economical in terms of machinery costs and energy use. Moreover, the products developed are in fact designed to be made with 3D printing using PLA, a compostable bio-plastic. Low temperature LED sources are compatible with the sustainability aim, sinche they are very efficient and require little energy to operate.
A product that is made at home doesn't need to be transported like traditional products, so its impact to placed on the market is zero. Until it's not printed by the end-user at home in fact, it's just a digital product.
If a component should break, just reprint it. The broken or end-of-life object becomes an organic waste, since PLA derives from corn, while the lamp socket and cable can be recovered and reused.
There is no type of solvent or irreversible disassembly system involved in the mounted lamp: everything is held together by the ring of the lamp socket, and this allows buy components such as the light bulb and the lamp socket to be given a second life.
Making a sustainable product also pleasant to use is the first step to allow people to approach ethical consumption.
"Luce" lamp collection puts good design and user experience first and foremost. The lamps have extremely balanced proportions and relate to the volume constraints of the more traditional and accessible 3D printers. The 3D patterns that can be appreciated on the surfaces not only give added value to the aesthetics, but become structural and allow very interesting light diffusion effects.
The care for creating a good user experience ha been put from the moment of printing, with geometries designed not to require supports, that guarantee an high print quality at first attempt. The assembly experience is simple and satisfying, in fact all the printed components are held together with the socket ring, in a simple and minimal way taht don't require screws or glues.
Allowing the use to make his own lamp through a guided process can also have cultural values. By printing the components, the user will notice the technical solutions adopted and the benefits that they bring to the structure of the lamp, to the aesthetic value, to the robustness and to the diffusion of light. The user will notice how different thicknesses and application of different colors for various pieces can help in obtaining the right degree of diffused light.
Giving the user the opportunity to familiarize with 3D printing and self-production by realizing a sustainable product is another important key goals of the project, because it works to create a positive attitude to the design and selection of products that respect the environment.
Good design should be for everyone, especially if its aim is to be an example of sustainability and inclusion.
The entire "Luce" lamp collection is designed to be realized using the most economical and widespread of additive manufacturing technologies, FDM 3D printing. To be offered to as many people as possible, the main dimensions and the proportions of any component of every lamp were defined using the maximum print volumes of the most common domestic 3D printers.
The models to download are uploaded on the most used platforms (Thinghiverse and Cults3D) and are offered at a symbolic price (€2.49), some are even distributed free of charge, so as to encourage their diffusion.
To meet the needs of most of the potentials users, lamps can be modified, other components can be added and parts of different lamps of the collection can be assembled, as they all share the same assembly method that uses the ring of the lamp socket.
Avoiding the environmental impact of placing a traditional product on the market is in everyone's interest. If a product is enough simple to be realized at home, it's better to avoid the unnecessary entry on the market of another traditionally made and polluting object.
This project explores the concept of self-production of simple objects, hoping that it can be proposed in an ever-growing number of fields. If everyone made their own everyday objects, perhaps those with low technical complexity that don't require high performance, the traditional mass production industry would have a reduced impact.
No stakeholders were involved. "Luce" project is a personal initiative and is placed on the market through free platforms for sharing CAD models for 3D printig (Cults3D and Thingiverse), with the possibility to edit the design for those who decide to download the product.
A holistic view of the project was adopted in the creation of the products of the series. The disciplines involved in the development are many. The starting point is certainly the Design for environmental sustainability, in fact the objective of minimizing the impact for each phase of the life cycle has been followed. Another discipline is the Design method, which has been adopted to develop the concepts and finalaze the solutions through CAD modeling. Then there are aspects of lighting related to the diffusion of light in relation to geometries, surface textures, colors and volumes. Another aspect that should not be underestimated is the knowledge of the constraints and opportunities provided by FDM 3D printing, which are important in order to be able to create a product that can have a good aesthetic result, be robust enough, and not require any additional surface finishing. In fact, the pieces are ready to assemble as soon as they come out of the printer, and are realized to not require printing supports.
The average user may not have high technical skills, as he will find printing and assembly extremely straightforward and simple. However, he will have the opportunity to study the technical solutions and understand their use, so as to be able to apply them to other projects.
The user will also get an idea of the advantages of additive manufacturing and in-house production in relation to the topic of sustainability. Each lamp can be considered as a guide project that explains how to apply all these concepts.
With the increase in the complexity of products and the number of their functions, designing and developing products has become a rather expensive business and certainly not for everyone in terms of knowledge.
To promote a sustainable vision it's instead necessary to go back to basics when possible and avoid over-complications if they are not required.
The innovative character of "Luce" ambient lamp collection is to give the maximum in terms of function, appearance and ease of use with the minimum resources possible.
All the lamps in the collection perform a precise function and are concentrated on carrying it out well, without getting distracted in the development of accessory functions which could increase the use of resources and moreover make the personality of the products based on simplicity to become less defined.
The number of components and the amount of material, together with the short printing times, have been optimized to require the least possible resources. The adoption of a "buy" lamp socket is necessary for safety, but to balance its impact to this component has been given as many functions as possible: the ring with which it is supplied is in fact used to fix all the components together and this avoids the need to print or buy other parts to join the elements.
All this has been done without compromising the aesthetic value of the product, which remains intact both when the light is off and when the light is on.
By its very nature, the entire product was born substantially as intangible, as a ditigal 3D model. For this reason an internet connection is enough to be able to obtain it immediately, wherever the user is located.
In terms of use, there isn't a context or environment in which it doesn't work: it's "just" a little, simpe lamp that provides diffused light, therefore universal.
Wherever it's needed or it's desired to have a warm and pleasant ambient light with beautiflul lamps, the product can be used. Whether it's a domestic context, a commercial or any other one, the concept does not change, all the lamps of "Luce" collection are excellent small sources of diffused and warm light.
Realizing mass-produced products, transporting and shipping them over long distances, often to buyer's home, is a strategy that is not compatible with environmental sustainability. "Luce" lamp collection helps trace the path of production located directly at home, through democratic, spreaded and low-impact production technologies capable of using bio-based materials.
Since the upload of the lamps, the community of 3D printing model sharing platforms has appreciated the projects. Several lamps have received thousands of downloads on Thingiverse and Cults3D, the two main platforms for makers. Many users have downloaded the lamps and mashuped components of different models, others have experimented with the use of colors and the intensity and temperature of light bulbs.
To decentralize production to the most local level possible, making the lamps produced by the end users, it was necessary to rely on the most common production technology that could transfer a product from the digital world to the real world, and this has been found in FDM 3D printing, nowadays extremely widespread. To make the lamps printable in 3D it was necessary to carry out a work of subtraction and optimization, excluding all the unnecessary, and the final consideration that can be made is linked precisely to this: minimizing the impact of a product is a holistic process which, if done with method, doesn't require giving up any of the functional and aesthetic values. Only sustainable products that are beautiful to look at and beautiful to use will have the chance to be adopted and trace the road for the future.
