Belgian Company .MGX (The Materialise Group) specializes in furniture, lighting, accessories, and custom projects that employ 3D printing, a technology one might think impossible: “Through the specific technologies of stereolithography and selective laser sintering, objects are brought to life primarily as single pieces, without joints or seams, through the principle of 'additive fabrication', whereby material is transformed from one state to another (liquid to solid or welding of material particles by laser beam).” This unusual manufacturing process makes one’s choices innumerable and also unique; .MGX calls the result “massclusivity”-an oxymoron that might just catch on, given its gorgeous effects, most especially with lighting.

Detail.MGX. Designed by .MGX.

Detail.MGX

is a ceiling light designed by Dan Yeffet as part of the Private Collection, which challenged designers to go “deeper into the possibilities of 3D printing,” with the further caveat that they think about both “content and meaning.” Yeffet chose to interpret his own fingerprint, its lines etched into the shade, thereby abandoning his privacy-he gave this design a piece of himself, you could say. The grooves are cut out of the Polyamide (nylon) through selective laser sintering technology. The result is that light shines through these empty spaces, illuminating the sphere while also erasing Yeffet’s individuality (only symbolically-this isn’t Brave New World territory).

Detail.MGX comes in two sizes: 24 and 13.9 cm diameters. Available in white, the pendant lamp hangs like a celestial body, a comet suspended in time and space. Its otherworldly appearance is no surprise, since .MGX “believes in magic(s).”