Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings

Journal article

Emily Bow Pearce, Joshua M. Pearce, Alessia Romani*
Designs, vol. 9(4), 2025 Jun, p. 80

Cite

APA Click to copy
Pearce, E. B., Pearce, J. M., & Romani*, A. (2025). Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings. Designs, 9(4), 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/designs9040080

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Pearce, Emily Bow, Joshua M. Pearce, and Alessia Romani*. “Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings.” Designs 9, no. 4 (June 2025): 80.

MLA Click to copy
Pearce, Emily Bow, et al. “Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings.” Designs, vol. 9, no. 4, June 2025, p. 80, doi:10.3390/designs9040080.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{emily2025a,
  title = {Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings},
  year = {2025},
  month = jun,
  issue = {4},
  journal = {Designs},
  pages = {80},
  volume = {9},
  doi = {10.3390/designs9040080},
  author = {Pearce, Emily Bow and Pearce, Joshua M. and Romani*, Alessia},
  month_numeric = {6}
}

Abstract

Stained glass has played important roles in heritage building construction, however, conventional fabrication techniques have become economically prohibitive due to both capital costs and energy inefficiency, as well as high-level artistic and craft skills. To overcome these challenges, this study provides a new design methodology for customized 3D-printed polycarbonate (PC)-based stained-glass window alternatives using a fully open-source toolchain and methodology based on digital fabrication and hybrid crafts. Based on design thinking and open design principles, this procedure involves fabricating an additional insert made of (i) a PC substrate and (ii) custom geometries directly 3D printed on the substrate with PC-based 3D printing feedstock (iii) to be painted after the 3D printing process. This alternative is intended for customizable stained-glass design patterns to be used instead of traditional stained glass or in addition to conventional windows, making stained glass accessible and customizable according to users’ needs. Three approaches are developed and demonstrated to generate customized painted stained-glass geometries according to the different users’ skills and needs using (i) online-retrieved 3D and 2D patterns; (ii) custom patterns, i.e., hand-drawn and digital-drawn images; and (iii) AI-generated patterns. The proposed methodology shows potential for distributed applications in the building and heritage sectors, demonstrating its practical feasibility. Its use makes stained-glass-based products accessible to a broader range of end-users, especially for repairing and replicating existing conventional stained glass and designing new customizable products. The developed custom patterns are 50 times less expensive than traditional stained glass and can potentially improve thermal insulation, paving the way to energy efficiency and economic savings. 1

Keywords

stained glass windows // additive manufacturing // 3D printing // distributed manufacturing // energy efficiency // polycarbonate // economic analysis // Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) // open design // open-source hardware

Resources and links

📑 Full text (publisher version) 2
📝 Full text (preprint version) 3
🛠️ OSF Repository (3D models and dataset) 4

Bow Pearce, E., Pearce, J.M. and Romani, A., 2025. ** Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings.** Designs, Vol 9(4), 80. DOI: 10.3390/designs9040080 ↩
Bow Pearce, E., Pearce, J.M. and Romani, A., 2025. ** Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings.** Designs, Vol 9(4), 80. DOI: 10.3390/designs9040080 ↩
Bow Pearce, E., Pearce, J.M. and Romani, A., 2025. ** Design of Alternatives to Stained Glass with Open-Source Distributed Additive Manufacturing for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings.** Preprint. Available at Preprints.org. DOI: 10.20944/preprints202505.2332.v1 ↩
Bow Pearce, E., Pearce, J.M. and Romani, A., 2025. 3D Printable Designs for Alternatives to Stained Glass for Energy Efficiency and Economic Savings. Project repository. Available at OSF.io. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/WQ5PF ↩