Swarovski announces its designers of the future

The three recipients of the Swarovski Designers of the Future Award 2017 collaborated with Swarovski to create a three-part installation inspired by crystal.

Tokyo-based studio Takt Project worked with 3D printing company Micron3DP to develop Ice Crystal, the world’s first 3D-printed crystal. The designers explored the ability of the technology to create a range of shapes and surface textures, and applied it to crystal in a process that Swarovski claims ‘effectively enables an artist to print light’.

Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel’s Cyanometer is a series of three ‘living’ light objects that harness solar energy from the sun through a portable crystal solar panel that users carry on their person.

Los Angeles-based Jimenez Lai’s Terrazzo Palazzo is an architectural environment made from a new material that incorporates upcycled Swarovski crystals. Inspired by the need to re-use and repurpose materials for a more sustainable future, the process ensures that the crystals that do not pass Swarovski’s quality control stage do not go to waste.