We empower people to make custom furniture, lighting, tools, and accessories with readily available materials. By providing digital print files and manuals we enable the local production of circular products. This allows a low carbon footprint, and offers a resilient alternative to global supply chains, while contributing to a more sustainable way of life. As an online resource, our website and marketplace serve to connect people and facilitate production.

The climate crisis urges us to come up with sustainable solutions, and to live in accordance with the planet’s boundaries. Incorporating circular design principles supports our efforts to create a livable future. By encouraging the use of local, repurposed materials we circumvent reliance on mass production while minimizing waste. Producing individual, modular goods eliminates the problem of surplus items clogging up warehouses and landfills.

3D printing democratizes the way in which things are made. We push this technology beyond the production of gimmicky items with a DIY look and feel, instead using it to create relevant products with a distinct aesthetic. Both in terms of cost and sustainability, 3D printing is the best solution for creating highly customized, unique products and parts. In the future, we will expand our capabilities and applications by using other rapid prototyping technologies, like laser-cutting and CNC milling.

All our 3D printed parts are parametric, meaning they do not scale linearly, but according to predefined algorithms. This creates dynamic, instead of static components, which allows you to use parts of any size to start building your product. The connectors are designed so that they can connect to the parts you choose to use, by adjusting just a few parameters. Since the design is based on mathematical equations, rather than predefined shapes, you can create countless variations within the constraints of a design.

Modular design ensures that all parts of a product can be easily repaired, replaced, or reused in other products. We design everything according to this principle. Our designs are based on standard materials or semi-finished goods (like screws, tubes or light bulbs), combined with custom 3D-printed connectors. Only these key connecting parts are realized with 3D printing, making our products bigger and more utilitarian than most things made with this technology. On our site, we provide tips to repair products or reuse parts. You can use our community section to find a local craftsperson to help you.

Our configurator makes creating unique products easy. Every configuration comes with a custom manual, including step-by-step instructions, video tutorials, and a list of required parts and tools. Configurations can be previewed in AR (Augmented Reality) on your smartphone, while our parts library can help you discover building possibilities based on parts you already own. If you are a member, you can use the website to access your purchase history, and connect with other members and makers in your area to find and offer parts, or facilitate their production.

Our design language is material efficient, functional and distinct. We celebrate every component, down to the screws and joints. This language is consistent throughout the 1×1 catalogue and also applies to our website, which is a tool to configure and build products, not just a shop. We strive to design 3D printable parts that push the boundaries of this technology and its applications. Since all our designs have a digital source file, they can evolve and improve over time, based on customer feedback and technological advancement.

Connections between people are just as important to us as the connectors in our designs: we can’t build anything without them. For this reason, we foster exchanges via our website and social channels to enable collaboration among users, makers, and producers. Occasionally, we also engage in educational activities, like talks and workshops about circular- and parametric design. To develop our products we work with emerging and established designers who share our values and vision.

Our business model is based on licensing designs for self-built projects, providing users with printable 3D files for key connectors and custom manuals. We offer subscription plans for both commercial and non-commercial use, and reduced rates for students and minors. Our goal is to offer a fair price. You only pay for the design, not for additional costs like storage, shipping, or production. 1×1 is fully owned by its founders and all transfers run through our ethical, cooperative-run bank.

We run most of our web-based services on European servers powered by renewable energy, while guaranteeing the highest privacy standards. Our parametric designs are created in Grasshopper and made available via our configurator, which is running on Shapediver. We collect and share our resources on Are.na and use Discord both for community exchange and as our marketplace. Occasionally you’ll see us posting on Instagram, but we focus on (platform-)independent messaging through our own website and newsletter.

We share our process with the community and are always interested in improving our products, services, and platform based on your feedback. Our work process is shared via our Discord and newsletter, where we openly communicate about how our organization evolves. We listen to our community, and try to respond to our members’ feedback and needs. If you have ideas to improve our services or designs, please let us know.

Our products are designed so that all components can be either sourced locally, or 3D-printed on demand. This gives you access to the entire value chain. By creating modular designs, we encourage circular production: parts can easily be replaced or reused. We recommend up-cycling parts before buying new ones. To help navigate material choices, you can find sustainability tips in our manuals, as well as pros and cons for every part you choose. In the near future we aspire to unify the configurator, marketplace, and production facilitation within a single, cohesive online platform. It is our goal to offer a system that is actually fully circular, including viable end-of-life strategies.

Our services currently exist in their first iteration, supported by an initial round of funding. In the next phase we aim to expand our range of products and parts library, extend our services to facilitate exchange and grow our marketplace. We are planning to integrate existing services for the maker community into our site. For our marketplace we wish to partner with producers of filaments, parts, or printers to offer the best, most sustainable options.