Mini factory

left to righ top; studio Swine hydraulic press, Sea chair label, Dirk vander Kooij repurposed robot arm

left to right below; PietHeinEek workspace, Tom Dixon temporary digital production facility in Milan

What struck me most when visiting the Salone del Mobilé exhibition in Milan last April was the strong focus of the individual designer on the vast potentials of the digital production tool. 

Having your own mini factory within reach, making mini series production, being independent of stakeholders, controlling the total process from draft to end product that clearly must be an enormous challenge for the entrepreneurial designer.

During the symposium ‘Me Craft/You Industry’ keynote speaker Professor Pieter Tordoir discussed the topic ‘New Cottage industry’; which he defined as a mid size, mid tech industry with a craft intensive, flexible and entrepreneurial approach, focussed on network collaboration, often located in outdated industrial areas. This high-tech craft movement operates independently from existing industries were human intervention often has been minimized by advanced automation systems. The description of this small scale industry development seems to connect well with what was presented during the Milan furniture fair.

This new decentralized way to design is also made possible through crowd funding, open source technology, free software, peer to peer platforms, low cost of new production and networking technologies such as 3D rep-rap tools and laser cutters.

From within design this development can be linked to the motto ‘technology enables us, individualisation drives us’. It also responds to the mentality of the new consumer that demands transparency and influence and wants to be actively involved in production developments.

Some examples;

• Studio Swine launched the concept of a floating factory ship that recycles harvested plastic waste from the ocean into sea chairs, using a hydraulic press made from recycled agricultural machinery that fits on a small fishing boat.
• Dirk vander Kooij set up his own automated production line using an repurposed robot arm printing a series of chairs from melted recycled plastic obtained from recycled fridge components
• Piet Hein Eek moved his company to a former Philips factory building in Strijp R Eindhoven NL
• Tom Dixon promoted the direct digital production process in Milan by a temporary installation of a digital production facility during the Milan Salone del Mobilé event
• See also reviews on ‘Future in the making’ a presentation in Milan curated by Domus and Audi