Design of the Week: Dragon Doorhandles

By on December 24th, 2014 in Design

Tags:

This week’s selection is the frightening Dragon Doorhandle by Kai Bracher. 

Bracher, based in the tiny German town of Bad Salzdetfurth (a bit south of Hanover), has been developing new works using metal 3D printing approaches. One of them that we particularly like is the Dragon Doorhandle.

Bracher explains the design: 

This is a doorhandle like no other! The “Beilstein Biter” is  a frightening creature, that fills his enemys  with  terror. In this case however, this mighty dragon has materialized into a harmless and  decorative doorhandle. The neck and head of this dragon work as doorhandle.

Indeed, this work is not only visually interesting, but it actually works as a real doorhandle, as you can see in this simple installation. The video below shows the whole process. 

This work and others done by Bracher demonstrate the utility of metal 3D printing to create works that are not only artistic, but fully functional, equal in every way to conventionally produced items. We wrote on this just the other week. Bracher told us: 

I think you´re absolutely right about metal 3D prints blasting away the limits of what´s possible to build for a single maker for a relatively modest price (compared to traditional ways like casing or milling).

What we’re really concerned about, however, is the nature of the home attached to this scary doorhandle. What scary things could be behind the door? 

Via Kai Bracher

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!