The Osteon Chair is the first chair to be designed using a combination of 3D tools and artificial intelligence. Produced by EOS laser sintering the chair consists of a cosmetic skin and intelligent internal structure. Like the biological structure and mechanism of bone, the artificial intelligence software knows where to create sufficient support.
Osteon chair is an intelligent product that growing in free space with an artificial intelligence 'DNA' code. This code contains all the information required to ensure that the object will transform perfectly from a virtual design into a 3D object that achieves the optimum strength whilst maintaining the desired visual aesthetic.
The AI software used in this collaboration was designed by Dr. Siavash Mahdavi of complex matters, works rather like finite element analysis [FEA] in reverse. An ideal set of end results were formulated as the starting point and the optimal structure was created by working backwards to achieve that goal. The final AI Stool met all of the mechanical requirements while only using 1/3 of the anticipated material.
In the AI project the virtual designs were translated directly and perfectly from the 3d design environment by EOS laser sintering p700 machine. This project challenge the existing technology up to a point the we all had to update the technology by writing new codes and software.
The significance in this new way of building and designing objects is, one in the fact that we manage to optimise material usage by using 1/3 of the anticipated material. Second we develop a way to design with minimum constrains.
What was important for me was to develop a way to have a cosmetic unstructured outer skin and intelligent internal structure that you know will do the job… the outer cosmetic skin of the object is thin like the human face skin, open for the designer to be free and come up with optimised and playful design solutions.
With special thanks to Dr. Siavash Mahdavi of Complex Matters for his significant contribution to the project. Further thanks to EOS, Metropolitan Works, Autodesk and Materialise.MGX for their support in the AI project.
