Brass 3D printed coffee cups win SaloneSatellite award
Created by EGOUNDESIGN using a brass 3D printer from 3D4Mec
The SaloneSatellite Awards jury has selected the four winning projects from over a hundred candidates. Innovation in processes and traditions triumphs, focusing on sustainable thinking. EGOUNDESIGN studio took home third place with the set of Voronoi brass coffee cups, 3D printed using the 3D4Brass specialized system from 3D4Mec.
“We were inspired by a trip to Asia, where we observed the art of ‘Stone balancing,’ a meditative and playful practice of stacking stones,” said Luca Mercadent, one of the five founders of Egoundesign. This vision was realized in collaboration with 3D4Mec, the first company to develop industrial 3D printers for brass under the 3D4Brass brand.
“It is a set of cups assembled vertically through a magnet system. An object with multiple souls: meditative, playful, and functional,” Mercadent added. “A big thank you to Satellite and to Marva who has always supported our ideas. A recognition of our daily work.”
Voronoi, a sculptural system of six small faceted containers, vertically assembled through internal magnets and the first product to be 3D printed in pure brass, was chosen for “the effort of research leading to a new mode of production and application of 3D printing,” as explained by the jury.
Marva Griffin Wilshire, founder and curator of SaloneSatellite, presented the trophy – a metal sculpture inspired by Bruno Munari’s “short visit chair” by artist Daniele Basso. “A big thank you to Satellite and to Marva Griffin: this award is an important recognition of the enthusiasm that drives our team’s work towards experimentation,” declared the group composed of Luca Marcadent, Federico Redaelli, Edoardo Melchioni, Tiffany Melchioni, and Samuele Patti.
Voronoi is a modular collection of small 3D brass containers inspired by the zen art of stone balancing: with a playful, meditative, and functional soul, it invites the exploration of new balances through various interactions between the containers. The project reinterprets a traditional material like brass through cutting-edge technology, thanks to the collaboration between Egoundesign and 3D4Mec, the first company in the world to develop industrial 3D printers for brass.
The material is processed with L-PBF (laser powder bed fusion) technology, 3D printing pieces through laser melting and solidification of brass powder. A process that allows for shaping detailed forms that achieve unexpected lightness without compromising product strength. Additionally, thanks to the patented “automatic recovery” by 3D4Mec, raw materials are used up to 98%, almost eliminating waste.
The name ‘Voronoi’ and the shape of the containers derive from the study of the microscopic structure of brass alloy, composed of copper and zinc, and their atomic arrangement according to the Voronoi diagram, a particular tessellation of a recurring metric space in nature. Voronoi continues Egoundesign’s experimentation with 3D printing started in 2021 with the CENTO3 writing set, the latest project by Achille Castiglioni and Gianfranco Cavaglià, produced in collaboration with the Achille Castiglioni Foundation.
About 600 participants from 32 countries and 22 Design Schools and international Universities from 13 countries for the 25th edition of SaloneSatellite. For the first time this year, designers from Prince Sultan University (Saudi Arabia), Belgrade Business and Arts Academy of Applied Studies from Serbia, Michael Graves College from the United States, and Xi’An Jiaotong-Liverpool University from China participated.
Presided over for this 13th edition of the SaloneSatellite Award by Paola Antonelli – Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA (New York) – the industry experts’ jury convened on April 17th to evaluate the projects submitted by the 2024 exhibitors, showcased in an exhibition within pavilions 5 – 7.
Marva Griffin Wilshire, founder and curator of SaloneSatellite, presented the awards ceremony which took place at SaloneSatellite in front of a large audience; on stage were Paola Antonelli and Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano.
“I am happy for the young people who have achieved their goal. When I created this project, young designers had a desire: to enter the Salone del Mobile.Milano to make themselves known. As a journalist, I worked for American and Italian magazines and also collaborated with the Salone. I turned to Manlio Armellini who made the space available to me. And so SaloneSatellite was born,” recalls Marva Griffin.
At the SaloneSatellite Award 2024, alongside the usual award diploma, the metal sculpture designed by artist Daniele Basso was added as a trophy – previously a debutant at SaloneSatellite – inspired by the Singer “short visit chair” designed by Bruno Munari in 1945.
