La Pedrera

The desktop lamp "La Pedrera" takes its birth from a masterpiece of the Catalan architecture. It was inspired by the homonymous house located in Barcelona, on the corner between the two streets Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer de Provença. The palace is also renown as Casa Milà and it was designed by the famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí to whom the lamp is a tribute for his visionary design that is very similar to generative design. The lamp is composed of six pieces: a base, four parts that form a side structure and a cover. The base has just the function of hosting the lamp holder plus supporting the side structure. The bottom of the base has four legs to raise the base from the desktop and leave room for the electrical wire. Each of the four faces of the side structure recalls the real architecture of "La Pedrera" in the following ways: a) the waviness of the face was extracted by the profile of the facade in the layout of the ground floor; b) the complex irregular pattern of the faces copies that of the main gates of the palace. The giant gates are made of wrought iron and were designed by Jujol. The cover encloses the internal volume of the lamp for safety issues, so that the bulb cannot be reached directly. The cover just lays on the side structure and its easily removable to replace the light bulb. With its apertures, the cover evokes the figures of the chimneys at the top of "La Pedrera". Each single piece fits within the working volume of the MakerBot's 3D printer. The largest piece measures about 218 mm x 152 mm x 10 mm. For fabrication, each single piece should be aligned to the 3D printer's building plate (xy plane) as to minimize the height in the building direction (Z direction). After fabrication the six pieces should be assembled using the rectangular reference pins and the snap fits to lock the pieces together. By printing each single piece instead of the complete assembly, there are different undeniable advantages: 1) printing time is minimized; 2