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Candlelight is warm and cosy, but buying candles is a hassle, so an idea from designer Moritz Waldemeyer could be a breakthrough: he has come up with a modern candle that needs neither wax nor a wick. |
His electronic candle is called My New Flame and is a technological wonder that never burns down.
“When you look at the candle it looks as if a flame is burning at the top of a narrow black or red circuit board,” explains Waldemeyer. “From up close you can see 128 tiny LEDs on each side that emit an image of a flickering candle flame.”
Thanks to some clever programming, the look and feel of the flame is very realistic.
LEDs are the electric light source of the future. Incandescent light bulbs and halogen lamps still make up a large share of the market in Europe despite growing legal restriction. However, designers are adapting to LEDs. There are a number of challenges they face.
In contrast to conventional light bulbs, LEDs are compact and have little physical volume.
When integrated into a lighting fixture, they cannot be replaced, so the whole fixture will have to be thrown away if it fails.
You also need to bundle a lot of them to get a decent amount of light.
“The lighting industry has been adapting to a broad range of new technologies in the last few years as light bulbs become less common,” says German designer Konstantin Grcic.
That transformation has affected many classic designs, where the lampshade was once structured around a bulb.
That applies to Achille Castiglioni and Pio Manzus’ iconic light, the Parentesi.
Grcic has updated their design to suit the new technology. His OK lamp’s height is adjusted in the same way as the Parentesi by sliding the light source along a vertical wire. However, the OK is flatter and larger than the Parentesi and can be turned 360 degrees.
“Creating a new lamp no longer means designing everything around a fixed shape of light bulb. You need to design the light source itself,” says Grcic. “That was a real challenge for me and I asked myself if it was possible to update the Parentesi’s design.”
Iconic lights inspired Czech designers Jan Plechac and Henry Wielgus.
Their Neverending Glory collection was created for Lasvit and reinterprets chandeliers from the La Scala opera house in Milan, the Palais Garnier in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Estates Theatre in Prague.
The lampshades are made of glass and simply designed but their silhouettes are a reminder of the chandeliers that inspired them and prime examples of Czech glassmaking.
Jean Marie Massaud has designed a floor lamp for Foscarini where the light can be optimally controlled and adapted to its environment. The light source is mounted on a long, narrow stand.
Its beams can be directed in the desired direction by a wing-like board above the light.
“Creating a new lamp is basically about designing the light’s quality. I love it when it creates a 3-dimensional feel for the space the lamp is standing in,” says Massaud.
And that is the main problem today’s light designers have to grapple with: inventing new effects for light for a world that one day may do without incandescent bulbs and halogen lamps.
If they succeed, the enduring nostalgia for conventional light bulbs may finally fade away. - DPA