“Afillia” by Alessandro Zambelli for .exnovo: professional 3D printing offers lighting a bright future
News Infurma24/01/2014
Stripping away the frills poses the risk of coming up against bare essentials, sometimes in a highly visible way. A fine example are Alessandro Zambelli’s new lights, designed for .exnovo. Afillia features a new and harmonious mix of tradition and innovation, thanks to an innovative combination of traditional materials coming from the very North of Italy and professional 3D printing technology. Alessandro Zambelli is in Maison&Objet introducing the new family (Stand 8 now Stall C7). 
He calls the collection “Afillia,” a name borrowed from botany. In plant terms, it means leafless, though not lifeless: surely an apt image for a collection of luminous essentials and airy voids. The Afillia range of six lighting accessories consists of three table lamps and three pendant lights. The base or socket ring is in Swiss pine, a premium wood from the Alto Adige mountains, hand-crafted according to the region’s ancient traditions. The wood fitting locks on to a light diffuser in polyamide (also known as nylon fibre), sintered by professional 3D printing. 
The results are furnishing extras, either one-offs or limited editions. The avant-garde technology really does print them, but the machined product is in perfect harmony with the intuitive skill of the master-craftsmen who shape the material from the amorphous polymer block. They finish off the process by hand, lending the personal touch to every creation. The centrepiece of each accessory is a diffuser which embraces and embellishes space. Delicate, lace-like patterns with their geometrical pinholes give rise to two-dimensional origami in thin, curvaceous spirals. Free to waver at will, the light casts fleeting shadows, then beams into unexpected focus, forming compact halos, round and bright. This is energy in fluid form, in the no-man’s land between stuff and shape, air and light. 
.exnovo is a brand of HSL, the Trento-based company which was the first to bring digital technology and additive manufacturing to Italy. It has worked with both for 25 years, and specializes in the production of design objects by means of professional 3D printing. Source: Alessandro Zambelli Visit the Alessandro Zambelli website Visit the .exnovo website
He calls the collection “Afillia,” a name borrowed from botany. In plant terms, it means leafless, though not lifeless: surely an apt image for a collection of luminous essentials and airy voids. The Afillia range of six lighting accessories consists of three table lamps and three pendant lights. The base or socket ring is in Swiss pine, a premium wood from the Alto Adige mountains, hand-crafted according to the region’s ancient traditions. The wood fitting locks on to a light diffuser in polyamide (also known as nylon fibre), sintered by professional 3D printing. 
The results are furnishing extras, either one-offs or limited editions. The avant-garde technology really does print them, but the machined product is in perfect harmony with the intuitive skill of the master-craftsmen who shape the material from the amorphous polymer block. They finish off the process by hand, lending the personal touch to every creation. The centrepiece of each accessory is a diffuser which embraces and embellishes space. Delicate, lace-like patterns with their geometrical pinholes give rise to two-dimensional origami in thin, curvaceous spirals. Free to waver at will, the light casts fleeting shadows, then beams into unexpected focus, forming compact halos, round and bright. This is energy in fluid form, in the no-man’s land between stuff and shape, air and light. 
.exnovo is a brand of HSL, the Trento-based company which was the first to bring digital technology and additive manufacturing to Italy. It has worked with both for 25 years, and specializes in the production of design objects by means of professional 3D printing. Source: Alessandro Zambelli Visit the Alessandro Zambelli website Visit the .exnovo websiteNews Infurma:
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