LEAKY—
WALL LIGHTING
Bachelor's Project in fall 2012
Anadolu University
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The task was to design a lighting product for a imaginary designer store where products are designed, manufactured and sold in. Each student was supposed to build a working prototype for the final jury.
Background
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My starting point was to think about qualities of the light: What is the light, how does it tend to behave, what kind of characteristics does it have? In the end, the light was defined by several keywords.
Statement & Inspiration
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How can the defining characteristics of the light be shown in a product?
The dynamic relationship between the sun rays and clouds has a great potential to sum up all these characteristics: Clouds try to hide the light as the light tries to escape through every possible direction.
Ideation / Mockup Process
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I mostly generated ideas by building and developing mockups. My focus was on how to take this natural relationship between the sun and clouds to indoors and give the user the power of controlling the light.
Here are the materials I used during the process:
velcro strip may act as a holder of its own parts and the felt material sheets. It enables a flexible usage.
fabric material may play a significant role in restraining and controlling the light.
felt material may play a significant role in restraining the light. It may take the role of the loop part of velcro.
acetate sheet may provide durability for cover material.
incandecent & led bulb can be possible light source. Positioning of bulb may make the spread of light limited.
led strips can be possible light source. Led stripes may let light homogeneously distributed from every angle.
Mockup I 1
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Organic shapes were considered to typify undefined cloud shapes. Incandescent & led bulbs were used as light sources respectively. Heat and positioning problems occurred. The fabric loop-velcro attached to the edge was tried as a cover, but it did not show enough strength. Next, felt was used instead. It was better than the fabric in terms of durability and did not require loop-velcro. The hook side of the velcro placed on the base plate was enough. But there were things to be improved to make the cover more resistant.
Mockup I 2
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The base plate was used as a holding surface covered with hook-velcro strips, and a cylinder
wrapped with led strips placed to the center as a light source. The new source enabled light to beam at 360-degree angle. And the cap on to the light source helped the felt cover stay stretched. The velcro cover caused unwanted sticking.
wrapped with led strips placed to the center as a light source. The new source enabled light to beam at 360-degree angle. And the cap on to the light source helped the felt cover stay stretched. The velcro cover caused unwanted sticking.
Along the edge of the cover, fringe trims were used to make the grip easier. The separated part of the cover fell back and exposed the velcro.
Mockup I 3
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To prevent the felt cover from falling back when its’ part is separated, an acetate sheet was placed into the pocket sewn back side of the cover. Besides, the shape of the hook-velcros on the plate was changed to support the visual harmony and used only along the edge.
Prototyping
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One-to-one scale, operating model was made for final presentation.
Final Product
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Inspired by the natural beauty of crepuscular parallel rays of sunlight that stream through gaps in the clouds, the Leaky lighting project aims to recreate this dramatic effect indoors. It works by utilizing a felt screen over a seemingly random, cloud-like shape to diffuse the glow, concentrating light only where the user desires. To adjust the direction, simply reveal sections of the light unit by uncovering the felt.
Product in use
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The user can control and direct the light by separating the acetate sheet supported felt from the velcro holders. Because of the placement of velcros, the light leaks in every felt position.
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There are different options of color use. While the felt color is constant, as it represents a
cloud, cable and stitches on the felt have variable color alternatives.
cloud, cable and stitches on the felt have variable color alternatives.
