After writing about the honeycomb-inspired Dragonfly and the arboriform Fractal Table, I'm getting to be somewhat of an expert on MGX technology. And why not? I like pieces based on complex applications of complex theories actualized via complex 3D printing. So when Dror used MGX by Materialise to create a light cube out of applied squared square geometry, I took note. Crafted from a flat, 3D selective laser sintered (SLS) print of interlocking squares, Volume.MGX is the collaborative table lamp by MGX and Dror-the design firm that extends the work of Dror Benshetrit, someone who "brings poetry to function."

Volume.MGX . Designed by Dror and MGY by Materialise.

The collapsible form of Volume.MGX is rather pleasing. To accept the inherent problems of construction by building in destruction is a little sign of genius-a subtle wink to paradox and a possible tribute to any one of the many creator/annihilator gods of myths and religions past (Hindu goddess Kali, who spawns and destroys worlds, immediately springs to mind). Fold it open and Volume.MGX turns into a cube that is itself composed of hundreds of laser-cut squares and sections of squares. Place the cover over the lighting unit and the cube sits at an angle (it's not a true cube, after all, since a piece of volume has been cut off at a slant). It's like a die carefully balanced on its corner. Through the light that sits at its center, Volume.MGX emits a unique glow: "When illuminated, the beauty of the complexity of the shape is highlighted through the various effects the light has on the hundreds of squares that make up the collapsible form." Volume. MGX seamlessly and comprehensively illustrates Dror’s (and Benshetrit's) tripartite belief–"innovation in materials, technologies and geometries."