The future house will be printed on a 3d printer from Shanghai. Do not believe me? We interviewed the first and only specialist in the world who uses this technology for the benefit of the interior. We have a guest - the founder of Xuberance, the architect Stephen Ma. We had not time to get used to 3d-cinema and 3d-graphics, and the novelties are again at the threshold: progress on the alert. The Xuberance design studio from Shanghai was the first in the world to print decor elements and interior items on a 3d printer. The material that comes out of the Chinese super laboratory is very similar to ultra-soft and heavy-duty leather. But no. It is a unique polymer: it is equally suitable for both a wedding dress and a fashionable lamp. 
Stephen Ma, one of the founders and ideologuesWe miraculously caught a "young" but already very famous in the architectural environment of the Chinese project at the Milan exhibition dedicated to the latest technologies in design and architecture, and snatched curious fans and followers out of the tight ring. This is not surprising: the ability of 3D printing to adjust to the needs of each consumer is a real gift to the designer. Our editor-in-chief, Oksana Kashenko, interviewed Stephen Ma and asked him the most pressing questions. Lera Wang and Stephen Ma, Architects Native of Hong Kong, Stephen received his Master of Architecture in 2008 from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), worked as a lead designer at Xefirotarch in Los Angeles in 2006-2008, then as an architect at Coophimmelblau in Vienna , where he specialized in digital visualization and 3d technologies. He often visits the Vienna University of Applied Arts even now - with lectures. In 2008, together with two like-minded people, Ben Lou and Leroy Wang, Stephen founded the experimental design studio Xuberance. xuberance.org 
- - Stephen, your colleagues call Xuberancean absolutely innovative phenomenon in modern design. Why? What is unique about your work? - - I would answer with the words that we came up with when we founded the company. Xuberance is not a protest or a manifesto. It is a celebration of new possibilities in modern architecture and design. By and large, we do not sell raw materials or finished goods. Our product is design services in and of themselves. We exist for those who would like to create a more individual and personalized world around them. - - How does this happen in practice? - - The easiest way to explain it by the example of a wedding that we organized in Shanghai and turned into something like a performance for five dozen people. Literally everything there, from the wedding cake, clothes and cufflinks to fixtures and lamps, was invented and developed by us and then 3D printed using our own materials. 
- - Who are your clients?Why do they turn to you? - - Basically these are people who want something special, individual. Sometimes they are souvenir sellers, for whom we make very accurate figurines of the tallest building in Shanghai - the Shanghai Tower. Sometimes banks and insurance companies. Sometimes - hotels, for which we create unique lighting fixtures with complex digital designs. Quite often, they are ordinary people who need something unusual, for example, a piece of jewelry as a gift, which you definitely won't find in any store. In any case, we are always talking about a very small number of items - 30-40, in rare cases it reaches a hundred. 
- - How much does such work cost?- - While it is, of course, very expensive. The price of the lamps starts from one and a half thousand euros. There are seven and a half thousand and more. Jewelry can cost significantly more. But believe me, this is not forever. We are still at the very beginning of the road, and projects like Xuberance are rare. Over time, the technology will become mainstream and the price will change. The market is still skeptical about 3D printing because it is captivated by the stereotypes of mass production. But the next generation will already be free of them. Just imagine the opportunities that are opening up. If you have one good design project, you can make hundreds of items based on it, but not the same ones, namely with the properties and characteristics that each customer needs. This is a new industrial revolution. Behind her is the future! 
Xuberance.org ma-steven.blogspot.ru
Special report: home accessories printed on a 3d printer
