While the purpose of a 3D printer is to quickly make anything you need in isolation, the community behind it is all about collaboration and sharing. In the spirit of this, the folks over at BinarySpace put out a call to all of the makers in South Africa: a 3D printed chair that is also a puzzle.

The chair design, originally designed by Joris Laarman and 3D printer manufacturer Ultimaker, is comprised of puzzle pieces which fit together to create the top of a chair. BinarySpace asked SA makers to choose a piece of the puzzle, print it in their favourite colour, and then send the final piece to them to be slotted into the final product.

While it may have taken almost two years to complete (admittedly the project was on ice for about half a year), our makers delivered and it was worth the wait.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go completely smoothly. The pieces varied in size and texture thanks to the huge variety of printers and filaments used, there was cracked parts due to printing and fitting defects, and, well, it isn’t very functional at the moment.

“Also, because of the various materials and infill amount it’s not the most functional chair (we are too scared to sit on it), but it does make for an amazing art piece,” Said Tom Van den Bon, BinarySpace co-founder. “We are planning on covering the chair with clear resin to make it stronger.”

Also in the chair’s future is acting as a display piece and symbol of South African maker collaboration. It will be rearing its colourful head at various expos and gathering, like the maker’s corner at Decorex 2016.

We at actually contributed to this project. There’s two puzzle pieces from our 3D printer hiding away somewhere in the chair. Van den Bon states that he hopes to work with other makers again on a similar project, and we wholeheartedly agree.