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An Egg-Shaped Pavilion Made of 4,760 3D Printed Pieces

The marvels of 3D printing continue to amaze after all these years and seeing what people can still think up is pretty incredible. Dutch designer Michiel van der Kley spent three years developing and building this egg-shaped pavilion with the help of 3D printers and more than a few people along the way.

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Project EGG is constructed of 4,760 3D printed “stones”, each slightly different, to form the 60 cubic meter organic module. Each piece was 3D printed one by one, collected, and then placed into the exact order needed for building. The components were fastened together to form the finished shape, which features an opening on either end.

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Van der Kley let anyone with a desktop 3D printer participate by printing one stone, resulting in a community of printers coming together.

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If you didn’t have a printer, he let you adopt a stone and had one printed for you so you still were able to contribute to the project.

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Now that Project EGG is complete, it will make an appearance at Salone del Mobile in April and will also travel around the world on a tour.

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Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.