Winner of the Sustainable Lighting Challenge organized by Imagin Lighting. This project is ongoing as it will be realized into a real product.
Sustainable Product Design
Personal Project and competition entry
Project brief
The project brief is to design a lighting collection of 3 pieces. It can either be a pendant or chandelier, wall light or sconce and table or floor lamp. The designs must be designed to use material that has been recycled or would usually be waste.
Design Process
The start of the design process was centered around the materials. By designing these lamps I wanted to show the beauty of recycled materials. From this idea I started to do research into various materials.
Research
In this project I started with investigating different recycled materials. The start of the project was to get a better understanding of Imagin and their clientele.
As high end hotels is their main source of visible client groups I focussed on this particular customer group. I started to look into the wast streams of hotel rennovations. It was, however, difficult to find concrete figures on the disposed wast in terms of materials.The start of the design process was centred around the materials. By designing these lamps I wanted to show the beauty of recycled materials. From this idea I started to do research into various materials.
Materials
Eventually, I arrived at recycled cork as one of the materials. This first material was chosen as the used corks of wine bottles could ideally be used as source material. This relative unused material in the furniture industry could furthermore highlight this iconic process. Fabric on the other hand is used in various lights. It has the unique characteristics of flexible form and transperancy. Furthermore, currently a lot of fabric is being wasted and ends up in landfills. I wanted to give this fabric a second or even third life.
After winning the competition another round of ideation led to the adjustment of choosing wood as the replacement of cork. The colour of the fabric was also adjusted. To get a good understanding of the different materials, their properties and qualities I requested various samples from local suppliers. These can be seen in the pictures below.
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Form
Form exploration was firstly innitated through ideation sketches. The ideations sketches are a sample of the ones I made before narrowing down on a specific design. Afterwards followed additional 3D exploration, both in Blender and in Fusion 360.
Winning concept
// Intermediate design
In my design I choose for an airy forms that accentuate the material. I decided to design the following concepts
Chandelier
Standing lamp
Wall lamp
As a competition winner I will continue refining the design to make it production ready.
Rationale
My primary inspiration comes from the material itself. The first choice was recycled fabric. In today’s society there are enormous amounts of waste generated by the fashion industry. This waste is not reused and sometimes burned. I wanted this abundant material a second chance. For me it was essential that I capture it’s beauty and show that a “second” choice material can be an example of luxury. That is why I went for a layered design, especially in the chandelier I think this is very visible. Making the material visible and putting it out in the open is also the line of reasoning that I choose for the second material, recycled cork. Although not often used there are some institutes that either gather or recycle them. Cork is a beautiful material that can be moulded in numerous forms. Coupled with the setting where a lot of beautiful lighting can be found, high end hotels, the used cork doesn’t have to travel far as once the delicious wine is drunken the cork can be used to make the chandelier.
Design Proposal
After winning the award I continued ideating on the different lamps. The pendant stayed mostly the same as can be seen from the renders. The wood has changed from cork. The wall lamp and standing light changed in their appearance.
The animation moves at the movement of the mouse.
Final Design
Below the final design can be seen. Adjustments were made for easy installing of the lamps. Forms were perfected as well. For enquiries into purchasing the collection, please visit https://www.imagin.global/
