Version_01 Lamp
The story of one lamp's attempt to change the way we buy products.
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The story of one lamp's attempt to change the way we buy products.
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Was this helpful?
By Nat Hunter, Gareth Owen Lloyd and Milo McLoughlin-Greening
Europe's biggest export is air; empty shipping containers ‘deadheading’ their way across the ocean to be filled again with flat pack furniture, tech and toys. The Distributed Design Lamp Challenge’s aim was to generate new products that could disrupt this wasteful system. Held during London Design Festival 2018, we invited seven designers to Machines Room Fab Lab, aptly located in two converted shipping containers in East London. Using bulbs and fittings from British lighting brand Tala, the brief was to create a lamp that was simultaneously distributable and importantly, desirable. Industry experts chose Milo McLoughlin-Greening’s Light_00 (the project which would later lead into Version_01) as the overall winner; it showed a simplicity that made it quick for anybody to grasp the concept of distributed design. Made with two 3D printed hubs, people could construct lamp with any number of available materials; from locally purchased broom handles to coppiced wood, making an object that is unique to them and their surroundings.
The makers successfully produced their own lamps using poles normally used as scaffolding in the building trade, adding their own character to the process by lathe-turning poles and lasercutting shades. In addition to these collaborations we were continually finding out about new places where Light_00 was being produced without our involvement - from being used as a starting point for a workshop at FabLab Budapest to being taught on a University course at Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa.
Although we were happy that the lamp was being shared and remade without our knowledge, we felt that we had lost control of the outcome - some of the prints were breaking and makers had to hack the design to get it to work. This is a common challenge with open source design and we needed to find ways that we could ensure quality so that we can get the lamp into the hands of regular people not just makers.
We decided to shift from the open source approach to a distributed manufacturing model and we have partnered with a 3D printing micro factory Batch.works in the neighbouring shipping container to Machines Room. To print with Batch.works the hubs have been optimised so they can be made with a single 1.2mm plastic extrusion, dramatically saving time and materials. This design-for-print is very different to simply sharing a file online and distinguishes open source to design for distributed manufacturing.
In July 2019 we held a sprint with a new group of designers. Together we refined and prototyped a packaged product with clear instructions ready to test on the open market. Our plan is that the customer orders the set of hubs on www.batch.works which are then printed and posted on demand. They then use the instructions and shopping list found on www.wikifactory.com to buy and build the rest themselves. At a cost to the customer of around £45 this is comparable to buying a similar mass produced lamp.
Breaking down the numbers, the Batch Works platform shares 6% of the online retail price with designers. To make £1 per pair of hubs, we would need to retail at £16.50. With £3.50 for shipping the customer would be paying £20 for the 3D prints. The rest of the components if bought new (and we do encourage using found parts) could be purchased for about £15-25. In this model, the designer is getting 2% of the final price, this is very similar to the cut they would get as a royalty for a mass manufactured product licensed by a company like Joseph Joseph or OXO.
To be a viable business however we would need to be selling thousands of hubs, but then do we risk becoming as bad as the system we are trying to replace? From the outset, this project has been about changing mindsets rather than selling a new product. When someone orders our hubs they are not buying a lamp but purchasing permission to pick up a saw, a drill, to wire a plug and to create an object that will bring them joy through making.
In 1996, Danish researcher Rolf Jensen wrote "In 25 years, what people buy will be mostly stories, legends, emotion, and lifestyle." Jenson was referring to what is now known as the Experience Economy; perhaps this is the business model for version_01 - to sell workshop experiences where people can come together to make their own lamps? Makers around the world are already selling crafting activities like bookmaking or spoon carving on disruptive platforms such as AirBnb Experiences and Meetup. Perhaps soon makers around the world will also be teaching people how to make their own version_01 lamps; the value not being as a commodity, but in being able to say “I made that”.
There is a huge difference between an object which could be made in a distributed fashion and the realities of an actual product out in the world that can be bought and sold. After the challenge we formed a collaboration to see what could happen if this lamp was real. The first test was to confirm if it could be made anywhere by anyone. Milo made the files and instructions available on and the project was promoted as part of Greenpeace's #makesmthg week. Makers in Barcelona, Paris and Vienna all created their own versions of the lamp; adapting the designs for their local needs. Next, we partnered with Anna Lowe from the MakerNet alliance; a network of people and organisations designing the digital infrastructure for an open internet of decentralized manufacturing that works for small producers in the Global South. She wanted to see if makers in in those regions could start their own business manufacturing the lamps. Anna connected us with three Fab Labs; Winam Fab Lab Kenya, Kumasi Hive Ghana and Nepal Communitere and we asked them to make their own versions of the lamp and to document the process.
Link to hi res photos:
