What Joris Laarman Studio does

Joris Laarman Studio is a Dutch experimental design laboratory founded in 2003 by designer Joris Laarman and based in Zaandam, Netherlands. The studio operates at the intersection of craftsmanship and emerging digital fabrication technologies, producing limited edition furniture, sculptures, kinetic installations, and large-scale 3D printed works. Core proprietary technologies developed in-house include MX3D metal printing (robotic welding-based 3D printing capable of producing large-scale metal objects without support structures), MX3D Resin additive manufacturing, voxel-based digital matter concepts, cellular/gradient generative design algorithms, and bioluminescent material experimentation in collaboration with university research labs.

The studio's revenue model rests on three streams: limited edition art and furniture sales routed through top-tier design galleries (Friedman Benda Gallery in New York, Carpenter's Workshop Gallery in London/Paris, Kukje Gallery in Korea); commissioned projects for institutional clients such as Greenpeace and Autodesk; and technology licensing via the MX3D spin-off, which operates independently at the NDSM ship wharf in Amsterdam and produces large-scale works including the MX3D Bridge. The studio has one industrial OEM licensing relationship with Italian lighting brand Flos for the Nebula lamp. Pricing is not publicly disclosed, and works are sold on a bespoke or gallery-mediated basis rather than via e-commerce.

Customer demand is anchored by Museums and Design Institutions, with works held in permanent collections at MoMA, Centre Pompidou, Victoria & Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rijksmuseum, and more than 35 other major international institutions. Design collectors and galleries represent a secondary segment. The studio operates with a small headcount (firmographic range 11-50), is founder-owned with no disclosed external institutional investment, and has received the Wall Street Journal Innovation Award (2011).

Name

Joris Laarman Studio

Legal name

Joris Laarman Studio

Website

https://jorislaarman.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Joris Laarman Studio is a Dutch experimental design lab founded in 2003 that creates limited edition furniture, sculptures, and installations using proprietary digital fabrication technologies, sold through top-tier galleries and held in 40+ international museum collections.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Designer Furniture & Sculptures

NAICS

Industrial Design Services (541420), Office Furniture (including Fixtures) Manufacturing (3372)

SIC

Public Bldg & Related Furniture (2531), Office Furniture (2520)

akta.pro primary industry

Industrial/Product & Furniture Design (BPAHAKAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Art & Drafting Supplies Retail (CRALABAG)

Keywords

• Experimental design
• Collectible furniture
• Digital fabrication
• Robotic 3D printing
• Limited edition sculpture

Headquarters

HQ city

Zaandam

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Limited Edition Art & Furniture Sales: The studio creates limited edition and one-of-a-kind design pieces sold through galleries and directly to collectors and museums. These include iconic pieces like the Bone Chair, Heatwave radiator, and Gradient furniture series.
2. Technology Licensing (MX3D): The MX3D technology developed by the studio was spun off as an independent company. The studio continues to use MX3D for producing large-scale 3D printed works like the Gradient Screens.
3. Commissioned Projects: The studio undertakes commissioned works for specific clients and exhibitions, such as the Time Capsule for Greenpeace's Save the Arctic campaign, Forest Tables for Kukje Gallery, and custom installations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Joris Laarman Studio is an experimental design and research lab that creates limited-edition furniture, sculptural objects, and large-scale architectural installations by combining digital fabrication technologies (including proprietary robotic 3D printing) with traditional craftsmanship. The studio sells through high-end galleries (Friedman Benda, Kukje, Carpenter's Workshop) and licenses select designs for industrial production by partners such as Flos. Works are held in over 40 museum collections including MoMA, V&A, Stedelijk, Cooper Hewitt, and Centre Pompidou.

Product overview

Joris Laarman Studio is a Dutch experimental design laboratory creating furniture, sculptures, and installations at the intersection of craftsmanship and emerging technology. The studio's portfolio includes the Bone Furniture series (Bone Chair, Bone Chaise, Branch), the Microstructures series (Soft Gradient Chair, Aluminum Gradient Chair, Adaptation Chair), Maker furniture (Makerchairs, Maker Tables, Bits & Parts), MX3D metal printing technology (MX3D Bridge, MX3D Resin, Dragon Bench, Butterfly Screen, Gradient Screen), and various standalone works (Heatwave, Nebula, Starlings Table, Digital Matter, Half Life Lamp, Time Capsule). The studio emphasizes the symbiosis of handcrafts and digital fabrication technologies, using parametric design tools, 3D printing, robotics, and biotechnology. Products are primarily limited editions sold through galleries like Friedman Benda, with many pieces held in permanent collections of major museums worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Bone Chair A limited-edition sculptural chair whose seat and back are grown algorithmically based on natural bone growth patterns and fabricated via 3D-printed polyamide; intended for collectors and museum acquisition.
• Bone Chaise Longue A limited-edition reclining chaise based on the same algorithmic bone-structure logic as the Bone Chair, fabricated in 3D-printed polyamide; sold as collectible design furniture.
• Heatwave Radiator A sculptural radiator whose surface pattern is generated from a heat-flow simulation, combining functional heating with parametric design; sold as a limited-edition collectible design object.
• Nebula Lamp (with Flos) A spiral-based LED pendant lamp designed by Joris Laarman and produced in partnership with Flos; offered as a serialized, license-produced lighting object for collectors and design enthusiasts.
• Asimov Chair (with Flos) A limited-edition chair collection designed by Joris Laarman and produced by Flos, exploring parametric forms.
• Branch Bench A bench design in which the structural supports grow algorithmically like branches from a tree; offered as a collectible piece.
• Starlings Table A limited-edition table whose base is generated from a starling-murmuration flocking simulation.
• Half Life Lamp A sculptural lamp exploring light decay through computational form; sold as a collectible design object.
• Leaf Table and Cumulus Table Tables in the studio's 2010 furniture series inspired by leaf structure and cloud-like accumulation patterns; sold as limited-edition designer furniture.
• Digital Matter / Pixelated Objects A series of objects and experiments in which voxels are deposited layer by layer at varying densities to create gradients of material behavior; offered as collectible sculptural works.
• Soft Gradient Chair A chair whose 3D-printed polyamide structure transitions smoothly in density and softness across its surface; offered as a limited-edition collectible.
• Aluminum Gradient Chair An aluminum chair demonstrating density-gradient 3D printing for varied material stiffness; sold as a limited-edition design piece.
• Adaptation Chair A chair exploring shape-morphing adaptation, offered as a limited-edition collectible.
• Makerchairs (Maker Chair series) A series of downloadable chair designs published as open-source files that owners can fabricate themselves; offered as a free or low-cost digital design product.
• Dragon Bench A sculptural bench fabricated with multi-axis robotic 3D printing in steel; sold as a limited-edition collectible design object.
• MX3D Bridge The world's first metal 3D-printed functional pedestrian bridge, designed by Joris Laarman and engineered with MX3D using robotic multi-axis wire-arc additive manufacturing; spans the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in Amsterdam.
• Polygon Bench A faceted bench exploring low-polygon geometric forms; sold as a limited-edition piece.
• Butterfly Screen A room divider whose surface is generated from butterfly-wing patterns; offered as a sculptural collectible.
• Gradient Screen A gradient-density room divider extending the studio's material-gradient research; sold as a limited-edition object.
• Strange Attractor Lamp A lamp whose geometry is generated from strange-attractor mathematical models; sold as a collectible lighting object.
• Project Aurora Time Capsule A time-capsule project containing future-facing design objects, including early experimentation with bioluminescent light sources.
• Bits & Parts (MX3D Resin launch) A collection of resin-printed objects produced on the MX3D Resin voxel-printing platform; demonstrates volumetric / multi-material resin 3D printing and is offered as sculptural collectibles.

Quantifiable outcome

• 40+ international museum collections hold Joris Laarman works, including MoMA, Centre Pompidou, Victoria & Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and LACMA
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• AutodeskflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016Autodesk served as the main sponsor for the MX3D Bridge project. They invited the studio to present about their robotic printers, and the bridge project was conceived at the airport on the way to an Autodesk presentation in San Francisco.
• MX3DcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014MX3D was spun off from Joris Laarman Lab to commercialize the metal 3D printing technology developed in the studio. Located at the historical NDSM ship wharf in Amsterdam, MX3D produces large-scale 3D printed works for the studio including the MX3D Bridge, Gradient Screens, and Butterfly Screen. The studio remains a key client and collaborator of MX3D.
• Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIAAC collaborated with Joris Laarman Lab on the MX3D Resin research project, developing the additive manufacturing method that neutralizes gravity during printing.
• MITminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with MIT on the Paper Starlings project for the Guggenheim Museum's 50th anniversary exhibition, working on the concept of autonomous flying paper planes.
• USE (Dutch Entertainment Company)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with USE on the Paper Starlings project for the Guggenheim Museum, aiming to create the largest non-living swarm of individually flying objects.
• FloscoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerItalian lighting brand Flos collaborated with Joris Laarman to produce the Nebula lamp, one of his first collaborations with a major industrial design firm.
• GreenpeaceflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoris Laarman Lab was commissioned by Greenpeace for the Save the Arctic campaign to create the Project Aurora Time Capsule - an indestructible sphere containing names of 3 million Arctic supporters and a political declaration, placed on the Arctic seabed in 2013.
• Kukje GallerycoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorKorean art gallery Kukje commissioned the studio in 2011 to develop Forest Tables based on the Leaf Table concept - a series of tables that fit together like tree canopies.
• Friedman Benda GallerycoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPrimary gallery representation in New York for Joris Laarman's work, exhibiting pieces like the Bone Furniture series, Vortex series, and hosting the 2010 exhibition that completed the Bone Furniture series.
• University of TwenteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with the Faculty of Tissue Regeneration at University of Twente to create the Half Life bioluminescent lamp using genetically modified CHO cells enriched with firefly luciferase gene.
• Royal TichelaarminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDutch ceramics firm Royal Tichelaar is further developing Foam China material for architectural applications, extending the lab's experimental ceramic foam technology.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Droog Design: Dutch design platform/collective that produces and distributes conceptual limited edition design objects. Shares Joris Laarman Studio's Dutch origins, experimental positioning, and gallery-mediated distribution of design-as-art collectibles.
• Front Design: Swedish design group producing experimental, conceptual furniture and objects often featured in museums and galleries. Comparable in boutique scale and emphasis on conceptual/technologically-driven limited edition design objects.
• Studio Job: Dutch design duo producing limited edition art-design objects, furniture, and sculptures sold through galleries and acquired by major museums. Shares Joris Laarman Studio's gallery-channel distribution, collectible positioning, and crossover between fine art and applied design.
• Maarten Baas: Dutch designer renowned for collectible, limited edition furniture and clocks sold through galleries and held in major museum collections. Comparable in scale, geography, and the limited-edition-collectible positioning that defines Joris Laarman Studio's commercial model.
• Iris van Herpen: Dutch fashion designer known for haute couture that fuses craftsmanship with advanced technology (3D printing, biomimicry). Operates as a boutique experimental Dutch studio with couture/collectible pricing and museum exhibitions, parallel to Joris Laarman's tech-driven craft approach.
• Studio Drift: Amsterdam-based experimental design studio working at the intersection of technology, nature, and art. Operates with a similar boutique-scale team, gallery representation model, and museum-collection trajectory, making it the closest peer to Joris Laarman Studio in both aesthetic philosophy and go-to-market.
• Atelier Van Lieshout: Dutch multidisciplinary design studio producing sculptural furniture and installations with conceptual edge. Comparable in experimental output, scale, and presence in international exhibitions and museum collections.
• Estúdio Campana (Campana Brothers): Brazilian design duo producing collectible, materially-experimental furniture and limited editions with strong museum presence. Comparable in collectible furniture positioning and crossover between craft, materials innovation, and gallery sales.
• Wendell Castle: Late American artist-designer regarded as a pioneer of collectible art furniture held in major US museum collections. Comparable in the positioning of furniture as singular art objects and museum-grade collectibles, though operating from a craft-furniture lineage rather than a digital-fabrication one.

Broad incumbents

• Marc Newson: Internationally established industrial designer with collectible furniture, product, and transport design work held in major museums (MoMA, V&A). Comparable in collectible design positioning, but operates at materially larger scale and broader portfolio reach than Joris Laarman Studio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

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• Instagraminstagram.com/jorislaarman
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/joris-laarman-studio

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Joris Laarman Studio