This week’s selection is the fun Plantygon by designer Samantha Welch.
California-based Welch’s design is described as a “Modular Geometric Stacking Planter”, and that’s exactly what it is. You can 3D print one of these and raise small plants in it, but that’s not the end of the story.
You can print more of them and stack them. Well, stacking might not be the right word, as their polygonal shape enables you to arrange them in interesting patterns.
Here are three arranged together, while below you can see six in a corner-style arrangement. The possibilities are endless and get more interesting the more you print.
Welch explains how it works:
Plantygon is a modular geometric stacking planter. Designed to accommodate my growing collection of succulents, it is based on the truncated octohedron which can tesselate in 3D space. This allows each planter to stack together in any combination that you’d like!
Each planter has a sloped inner drain leading to holes which drain into the neighboring planters. A version without drainage holes is also available for indoor use.
These are sized 100mm tall, so they are not huge. Welch seems to be using them for succulent plants, which tend to grow slowly. These would probably not be suitable for fast growing plants that would have to be rapidly moved out for larger containers. However, it is also possible to resize the Plantygon – just make sure you print all of them in the same size!
This design does involve some overhangs that likely need support structures on your prints, so be ready to turn them on and pull them off after printing.
You can obtain the files for solid-bottom or holed-bottom versions from YouMagine at no charge and print as many as you’d like. If you’re so inclined you can also purchase printed versions at Welch’s Etsy site.
