Project EGG is the biggest collaborative 3D printed structure ever made

You can do a lot of things with 3D printing: play with chocolate, make new organs, and now… create the largest collectively-made 3D printed project in the world, a pavilion in the shape of an egg (kind of). What a world.

As Treehugger reports, Dutch designer Michiel van der Kley came up with the idea for Project EGG, designing the prototype for the bricks that make up the structure and asking people around the world to print out their own and post them back to him. And people responded, sending bricks from the Netherlands, Germany, and America, among other places. Although the design’s the same in each case, each stone came out differently, thanks to the differences in machines (and, perhaps, the owner’s proficiency in 3D printing).

Kley then put together his structure, and the finished product is made up of 4760 blocks, all made from biodegradable polylactide plastic. He was inspired by the idea that collaboration can lead to greater things (literally and metaphorically) than we’d be able to achieve alone. ‘If you are willing to have an eye for the fact that most large things often consists of a collection of small things you are suddenly not limited by the size of the printer itself,’ he said.

Project EGG was just on display at Dutch Design Week and (appropriately enough) Kley now plans to take it on a worldwide tour.

Want to read more? We’ve chosen our 20 favourite coats and 16 favourite ankle boots to get ready for the winter weather.

If you’re more interested in getting a new camera than new clothes this season, you might be interested in these camera accessories for your iPhone, which beg the question: Do you need a camera if you own a camera phone?