During last month’s London Design Festival, designer Michael Warren set up a temporary factory at the designjunction exhibition in Holborn to demonstrate the world’s first full-scale modular, portable CNC milling system. Called Grow, the router system can help reduce lead times and offer greater design flexibility on the job-site.
Grow is designed by Michael Warren, a London-based product designer with over eight years of industry experience. Warren, who completed his Masters Degree from the Royal College of Art in 2012, has designed for Habitat in the UK, Anthropologie in the U.S., as well for his own brand. He had a good year in 2012— he took home not only the James Dyson Fellowship, but the ARCC Foundation Fellowship and the InnovationRCA Associate award.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Grow didn’t earn some accolades as well. The system boasts a working area larger than any comparable machine on the market, and when required, it can be attached directly to the working bed. Grow also employs cutting-edge mobile technology with its own smartphone App (currently only for the iPhone, but other devices could be supported.)
Pissed off the wrong contractor and need to leave town in a hurry? The router system, which weighs 132 pounds, can be easily assembled on-site and be ready to cut in under three minutes, and then be packed back in its own flight case for easy transport and storage.
P.S. If you’d like to learn more about digital fabrication, don’t miss Out of Hand, a fantastic exhibition that recently opened at New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design. You can read the review of the show I wrote for Architectural Record magazine here.
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