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Design Concepts: Next-Gen Lighting

by Matthew Zuras on December 1, 2009 at 12:40 PM

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never move from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over their creations, nonetheless.

The first installment of our new Design Concepts column examines next-generation lighting design. Dealing with problems of energy consumption, scale, and formal tradition, each of the concepts here has totally re-envisioned something as pedestrian yet necessary as the light bulb (which, if you think about it, was sort of like the very first gadget). Here are a few of our favorite concepts from the past few months:


'Emergency Tripod' prototype by Hans A Huseklepp
This 'Emergency Tripod' is intended to sit quietly until an actual emergency arises. Three individual lights magnetically connect to a charging base -- which is assembled simply by snapping the disparate parts together, abolishing the need for screws. In the event of an emergency, the user only needs to pull one of the lights from the base, and it automatically turns on. Its shape is dynamic enough to simply leave out in your living room as a design objet. Plus, that way, you always know where it is.
'Family of OLEDs' rendering by Johanna Shoemaker
Johanna Shoemaker's thesis project at the University of Wuppertal re-imagines the pendant lamp as a delicately opening flower. (We also see a tennis racket -- not that we're totally averse to that.) Equipped with ultra-thin and eco-friendly OLEDs, Schoemaker's Family emits patterns of light, rather than a single point of radiation.

OLED technology enables these lamps to produce varied colors and levels of intensity, more closely mimicking the behavior of natural light. The shades of this prototype open at user-specified angles, providing even more options for brightness and direction.


'Gaon Street Light with Compost Dustbin' rendering by Haneum Lee
Haneum Lee's 'Gaon Street Light' attempts to tackle the problems of waste and energy consumption. Organic food waste is deposited in a bin at the base of a lamppost. The methane gas produced by the refuse's decomposition is converted into electricity, which, in turn, powers the lamps.

Our only problem with this concept is that it only uses readily biodegradable waste. And what would keep pedestrians from accidentally putting metal, plastic, or paper in the bins? Still, we like the forward thinking that this concept embodies -- a sort of utopia where waste is banished and people have the common purpose of recycling everything.


'Bird Lamps' prototype by Zhili Liu
Zhili Liu's avian-inspired lighting combines a flawless minimalism and subtle narrative. The inexpensive Bakelite bulb sockets are ubiquitous in Liu's home country of China, where their form has remained unchanged for decades. Liu decided to fancy-up the sockets by fashioning them out of bone china, and by angling them to transform their utilitarian origins into something beautifully imaginative. The "birds" can be hung in clusters or by themselves, arranged on horizontal beams or under glass cloches for a caged effect.


'Edge Light' prototype by &design
The 'Edge Light' was presented during Tokyo Design Week as part of &design's "Design That Changes Relationships" exhibition. The primary purpose of the 'Edge Light' is to bring lighting into places that are traditionally unlit -- the spaces under rugs, books, or posters, for example. The triangular lamp's indirect illumination highlights the edges and contours of the item it's placed beneath, transforming our experience of both the space and the object. Since one of the goals of modern design is to alter our perceptions of spaces and objects, and their uses, we think that the 'Edge Light' succeeds marvelously.

Tags: concept, concepts, design, designconcepts, features, lighting, prototype, top

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