Extreme flexibility and design freedom: choosing robotic additive manufacturing for custom design furniture
Furniture has always been considered a durable good, but even this sector has been facing hyper-consumerism and the standardisation of lines and proposals. From the analysis of this context arises the creative concept of Elli Design, which has built a solid collaboration with Caracol, leveraging on its 3D printing robotic technology’s capability. Thanks to the capabilities of Caracol’s team, Elli has reshaped the development and production of his design lines with a valuable degree of sustainability and customisation, addressing interior projects for public, commercial and hospitality spaces.
Elli, Italian innovative startup, was founded by the CEO Alessio Elli and the COO Alessio Frigeri in 2021. They had three main drivers in mind: sustainability and circular economy; innovation and technology; and social responsibility. Their goal was to bring these pillars to life into tangible objects that could translate into a new Italian design aesthetic as well as adopt a new approach to manufacturing, focusing a lot on customisation and modularity of their furniture elements.
“We make furniture that meet the principles of eco-design: use of recycled and recyclable materials at the end of their life; design for circularity which wants multifunctional, adaptable, reusable, repairable products; planning of second hand, Extra-Life and Made&Remade practices” – says the CEO, Alessio Elli.
“Our manufacturing processes counteract value destruction, having in mind the entire life cycle of the product. For this reason, we have chosen Caracol’s robotic platform Heron AM to produce our products, and we have asked the support of their team to truly leverage the opportunities and potential of innovation and additive manufacturing, while guaranteeing equal quality and creativity that distinguishes Made in Italy design.”
The great market validation for the company has been the numerous awards and recognitions achieved: starting from 2023, when the Italy-USA Foundation nominated Elli Designed as the best Italian innovative startup with the America Award – Innovation. In the same year, ZERO Furniture System won the Archiproducts Design Award for Sustainability, and DOUBLE Armchair was acknowledged as the Best product of the show and Sustainability at the BDNY in New York.
The fruitful collaboration with Caracol, to bring innovation within the manufacturing of these design series, started even earlier than that – from the inception of Elli as a startup. Besides the DOUBLE Armchair and ZERO system, Caracol supported Elli with the concept development and 3D printing of SOHO Dining Table and Chair as well as BRYANT Coffee Table. In both cases, the use of LFAM technology unlocked new ways of making furniture that enhanced design freedom and production optimization. The circular shapes of both tables, together with their peculiar surfaces’ patterns, wouldn’t be possible or would require multi-steps production processes in case of traditional manufacturing techniques such as injection molding and rotomoulding. Morevoer, the optimisation of the design facilitated the assembly of each table’s base with its top, thanks to custom hooks directly integrated within the base.
DOUBLE is an indoor armchair previewed at BDNY2023 in New York and winner of the Best Product of the Show and Sustainability awards. The design concept centres on balancing aesthetics, form, and function, with a strong emphasis on minimizing environmental impact during production, using biodegradable materials, and promoting recovery, reuse, and remanufacturing at the end of the product’s life.
Characterised by soft, flowing lines and elegant curves, this furniture piece is designed for public spaces, lobbies and hotel rooms, with a view to sharing and conviviality. To improve the ergonomics, thus the comfort of the seat without compromising its edgy shapes, the 3D modelling has been key. At the same time, the real need of extreme customisation translated into a unique design – that wouldn’t be possible with traditional manufacturing techniques, to decline in several distinguishing colours.
