Oct. 6, 2014 | By Alec

Many of you will have noticed that 3D printing and other forms of open-source technology are slowly changing the world around us, especially where the consumer-market relationship is concerned. Why buy something you don't like, if you can build an alternative? Why settle for something that doesn't work properly, if you can improve it? Why replace something if you can modify and improve upon it?

Of course, this is still largely limited to the maker's community for now. But there is no reason to think that it won't continue to grow and spread into mainstream society as well, especially as technology is becoming more affordable and more widely available every year.

A Slovenian team of artists and designers, however, are already thinking about that future and how open-source creation can alter everyday lives and households. Under the title 'Hacking Households', which is part of BIO, a long-running Slovenian industrial design exposition, they have explored the possibilities that 3D printing and open-source modifications bring to normal consumers.

As they explained on their website, 'creating software has become a flexible, collaborative, and adaptable process: projects develop as code is openly shared, reviewed, adapted, and distributed. Simultaneously, home appliances are increasingly dependent on inflexible standards of production leading to a lack of reparability, less adaptability, and more waste.'

They have therefore sought to bridge the gap between the open-source maker's community and the traditional consumer world, and have made a series of ingenious objects that might represent the future. Instead of clinging on to the traditional dogma's of buying, breaking and replacing, why not modify, tinker, repair and improve your own household appliances?

Give them extra functions or improve their old ones. This would not only reduce waste drastically, but also democratize the production process, as common household objects are all 'designed, developed and produced democratically within open communities.' And 3D printing is an excellent tool to help achieve this, as it will allow you to easily create replacement pieces and the missing parts that improve your machines.

3D printing therefore featured heavily in the objects the 'Hacking Households' team has developed, which are currently on display at Slovenia's Museum of Architecture and Design. As can be seen in the various pictures, they have designed a series of small household appliances that are heavily improved versions of traditional objects. These diverse objects include a balloon-enclosed lamp, an inventive hand mixer and a series of multi-purpose fans.

All can be operated with standard, interchangeable power blocks, and all feature 3D printed parts, like joints, frameworks and even the blades of the fans. The idea is that all objects can be easily modified and repaired, allowing owners to cleverly repurpose any objects they own. Perhaps the cleverest object they made is a fan that can be modified with a heating element to give it a winter function as well.


The balloon-encased lamp.


The multi-seasonal fan modification.

Together, all these impressive pieces form a testimony to the endless applicability of 3D printing and open-source communities. Perhaps the solution to pollution and waste can be found in our own creative tendencies?

For more on this inspiring project, check out this short video:


Posted in 3D Printing Applications

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