Digitized Furniture

Furniture Designers and passionate Makers are called to present creative designs for any household item, to be produced using digital fabrication, thus making them customizable and affordable.

Background:

Digital Fabrication, a relatively new manufacturing process that mainly uses computer-controlled machines, allows designers to create physical models that can be used to test the functions and looks of a given design. In recent years, however, digital fabrication has been used to create final products in a variety of fields including manufacturing industries, construction, medical industries and even fashion!

The most common techniques used in digital fabrication are:

• CNC Machining, where typically shapes are cut out of wooden sheets.
• 3D Printing, where objects are built up out of layers of metal or plastic.
• Laser Cutting, where materials like metal, wood, and cloth are burnt or melted by a laser beam to create different patterns.

Digital fabrication using computer-controlled equipment, automation and robotics has the potential of dramatically changing complete industries, such as the construction industry, given the main benefits of affordability, higher quality compared to traditional approaches, and more streamlined design to production processes.

The challenge:

This challenge gives you an opportunity to live a unique design experience through which you can design, customize, and digitally fabricate your own household item in a more enjoyable and affordable way compared to buying it from mainstream shops, as the figure below shows.

The challenge idea is to give consumers control over the design of their house items and thus offer a personal and customized look and feel. This can be achieved through digital models that can be easily altered, redefined, extended or reduced in terms of size and function.

For practical and economic reasons, the required models need to have a usable function within the house, for instance a Sofa, Arm Chair, Soap Holder, Hanger etc. and not merely a decoration item.

-> Submit a Digital Design for any furniture piece or household item and for any furniture piece or household item and get support to digitally fabricate it in Giza Systems Education Foundation Fab Lab. 

Reward and Conditions:

The challenge involves 2 phases, where 8 Winners will be shortlisted in Phase 1 and supported to refine their designs and then 3 Winners will be selected for the final reward as follows:

In addition, final designs and products will be promoted and marketed for by Giza Sytems Education Foundation, in collaboration with Furvive, an online furniture store for smart and size-friendly furniture on which selected products will be showcased.

Submitted solutions should include:

• Digital design file "3D" that is compatible with the different machines listed below, e.g. Solid Works, AutoCAD, Inventor etc.

• List of Materials (including raw material, fasteners etc.) and estimated budget;

• Required machines for the digital fabrication;

• Estimated cost of production and expected sales price.

• Submitting a prototype for the design would be favourable.

 

Selection Criteria:

Submitted designs should meet the following criteria:

• Having a usable and practical function within the house;
• Can be customized based on clients' needs;
• The final product is Expandable and customizable (Check these designs for inspiration);
• The final product is of elegant and attractive design;
• Affordability by young couples and medium-income families.

 

Available Machines and Supported Materials:

The following list includes the machines available at the Giza Systems Fabrication Lab that can be used in implementing the designs:

1. CNC 3 axis vertical milling machine.

• PCB fabrication and mold execution in MDF blocks of dimensions 20cm x 20cm x 15mm

2. 3D Printing, PLA or ABS 15cm x 15cm x 25cm

3. Laser cutting and engraving of a work piece of maximum size 300mm x 500mm

• Different materials, e.g. 3mm Plywood, 5mm MDF, 6mm Acrylic, 2mm Acrylic, 3mm Acrylic, 1.5 m Cardboard

4. Vinyl Cutting; up to 1m x 2m on vinyl material

5. CNC Router handling; 16mm Counte rWood of basic dimensions 244cm x 122cm

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