Project Five
Date 2023
Medium Cardboard, Paper
Size 9cm x 7cm x 16cm
Context Individual Work
Project Five is a lamp that was made for the very specific task of sitting behind me on my windowsill, allowing me to comfortably read in bed at night. The main idea and guiding principle of the design process was that I wanted this lamp to be rectangular and perfectly fit to the width of my windowsill (nine centimeters). Furthermore, in contrast with Project Four, which shot light out into every direction, I wanted this lamp to be unidirectional, so that the lamp illuminates only the that page I’m reading without polluting the surrounding area with excess light.
In terms of aesthetic choices, I echoed Moshe Safdie’s “Habitat 67” in the boxy design of this lamp. In Moshe Safdie’s “Habitat 67”, something that all of the rectangular prisms that comprise the form have in common is windows and openings; every rectangular prism has at least one window. I imagined isolating one of said prisms, and enlarging the window.
Another design choice I made was to make the “window” removable. While it’s hard to tell by looking at it, the “window” can slide out the bottom. Because of how much this component moves around, I had to find a way to reinforce it, hence the diagonal bracing.
While the composition and design of this light is simple, it works well in functioning as a reading light that nestles perfectly on my windowsill. That being said, I think that I can update this lamp by studying Shoji (Japanese doors that use paper and lattice frames), and applying the logic behind these dividers onto the “window” of my lantern.
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© 2024 Lowell Kurtz