D Light (Diatoms Light) Type01 & Type02 by il hoon roh from uk

The concept of this project is similar to those of my other projects - to investigate the possibilities of harnessing the potential advantages possessed by the structures found in natural world which are already highly advanced structures through the evolutionary process.

The purpose of this design was to create a lighting device which would allow the user to change the direction and quality of light through mechanical movements.

In order to strictly follow the “Form follows function” design principle, the light design celebrates both tension and compression structural forces within the design. These structural forces counterbalance one another from the skin of the design to the tension cables and pulley systems imbedded inside the design to the reflector. These mechanisms are then fine tuned to achieve an equilibrium status.

Through the structural advantages of geometries found in nature investigated in previous projects, together with the newly developed mechanical movements, it was possible to create different lighting conditions from a sustainable LED light source through simple pulling and pushing of the centre rod.

When the centre rod is pushed, 6 LED lights retract toward the centre and hide behind the reflector/diffuser to creating softer, indirect & diffused lighting conditions. When pulled, the same LED lights expand out and create more direct lighting conditions. The user can adjust between these two different lighting conditions manually, by pushing and pulling the centre rod.

This lighting design opened up a new area of research for me to investigate and improve upon in the future.