LIGHTSCAPE

Last term I took an electric lighting course in which we were required to design and fabricate a luminaire. My Professor, Virginia Cartwright, also offered to sponsor students to participate in the Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition. I had never participated in a design competition, so I decided to give a shot:

You can see the entire design brief and requirements by clicking here, but to make a long story short, the design competition required that you make a chandelier for a high-end hotel chain located in the mid-west using LED or OLED technology. The following are the boards I submitted for the competition which quickly summarizes my design and ideas:

The main concept was to use local topography to inspire a form that could be repeated regionally but still be unique/different in every hotel.

Using the geographic form to provide flexible lighting for an inherently flexible space was achieved by using OLED’s and LED tape in tandem to create a variety of lighting experiences and qualities.

To allow the chandelier to be easily constructed and cleaned the structure was designed as a modular system.

Lastly, a mock-up was constructed to illustrate ideas about how the light may affect space.

After countless soldering iron burns and a little sleep deprivation, a little good news came my way:

The Lightscape Chandelier received second place in the design competition!

You can visit the competition’s website and see Lightscape alongside some beautiful entries from other participants.

Very special thanks to Virginia Cartwright for helping me throughout the process and for turning me on to this competition. Also, thanks to the design competition’s panel for selecting my project. Lastly, thanks to my pal Betsy for being the “Vanna White” of the 1/2 scale mock-up. 

I’d also like to thank the academy…