O-LAP is an open-source community run platform for designers to experiment with parametric furniture design.
It is part exploration into a new way in thinking and working with design.Designers create parametric furniture designs as plugins into the framework.Registered designs gets displayed in the gallery.Users can view the designs from the gallery and customize it based on the customization enabled by the designer.The framework lets users extract CAD drawings which can be used to fabricate the design using a Computer Numerically Controlled(CNC) cutting machine.The community moderates the design collection.O-LAP is the name for the concept, the framework and the community.
New Way to Design
The concept is popular in design and architecture circles. If you Google terms like “parametric furniture” or “cnc furniture” you should be able to find more examples. This project uses JavaScript to allow designers to create such designs in the browser which anyone can download and fabricate.
It is a new way to think about furniture design and experiment with new ideas. We are just as curious to see what can be done.
Furniture designs currently have a high entry barrier due to the resources required to manufacture at scale. A designer needs to establish a studio/fabrication infrastructure or align with larger companies to try to bring his/her designs to the market.With our production process, we can enable more upstarts to present their designs and let the community decide.
A community curated design collection.
The designs are exported as Computer Aided Design (CAD) files by the web app, which can be used for fabrication wherever needed using high precision machines. Sending a chair can mean just emailing the design file to any location.
Sending chairs across geographies is like emailing a file.
We promote an open licensing system to allow all designs to be replicated and forked by anyone. A design can be copied and morphed in different ways by different people adapting the design for their use. It’s like a natural selection process for designs.
A framework for evolving designs.
All aspects of the design are open and recorded publicly as the design develops. The designs stay ‘honest’ in concept as the narrative is recorded at every step. The exact contributions of different collaborators is recorded in the process.
Public development records log the design narrative as decisions are made.
The design, manufacture and supply chain has been a closed loop system owned entirely by individual entities.By breaking apart these aspects we think we can involve more independent participants to contribute and gain from this process while still keeping the whole process sustainable.
Wider community participation in the design and production process.
Current Stage
This is at a proof-of-concept stage. I am excited about the possibilities and exploring who else finds this cool.
If you think this is cool, please sign up with us and help us spread the word.
Amit Nambiar
Credit for all icons goes to following awesome designers from Noun Project.I Putu KharasmayadiVectors MarketDanil PolshinEliriconBen DavisAnanthWawan HermawanXinh Studio✦ Shmidt Sergey ✦Bohdan BurmichNicolas Weidinger