MetaformTools

2015

The MetaformTools are a part of the ongoing research project on additive manufacturing as a strategy to reduce shipping of materials and goods and localize production wherever possible in a meaningful way. The idea was to create specific tools and add-ons to encourage users to tailor the Metaform blocks to their particular needs.

We think of metaformTools as specific Apps based on the Metaform OS. By using additive manufacturing even very particular needs can be answered quickly: the tools are 3D printed according to each individual request. A wide variety of materials, colors and textures allow to further customize the order. If users have the capability to 3D print themselves, they can download the geometry and materialize the product locally. Metaformtools.com provides the platform and community to exchange ideas around use cases and tools with the potential to launch individual collections for other Metaform users

Instead of mimicking traditional plastic manufacturing processes, we emphasize the additive, layer-based printing process. The beautiful, fine fluted texture derives from the coarse print resolution which literally celebrates this new manufacturing technique. An economic side effect of the coarse print resolution is the short printing time.