Oslo Ceramic Coasters / 2011

This project started with my fascination for city grids, from the strict geometry of New York to the seemingly chaotic Bombay structure. At the time, living abroad and feeling a bit homesick, and I decided to use the map of Oslo, Norway as a starting point. I started by tracing a map of Oslo in illustrator and exporting the 2D lines to Rhino3D. In Rhino I made sure I got the right material thickness and the dimensions I wanted and started producing some early 3D prints based on that. After receiving several samples, I decided on the final dimensions and boiled down my selection to 6 areas in Oslo based on what they represent for me: No.1 Majorstuen, No.2 Parkveien, No.3 Sentrum, No.4 Kvadraturen, No.5 Sentrum Øst and No.6 Grünerløkka.

I initially produced a batch of these coasters using the Alumide material available through Shapeways but I didn't feel like the right material choice for these products. It was almost too precise and too perfect. When Shapeways introduced the Glazed Ceramics material I was pretty confident that it would be the right material.  An important aspect with using ceramics, is that the final products get slight imperfections due to the production method. Those imperfections, together with the look and feel of the material, were just right for these products.