Leuchtschotten

For this project we were asked to design and build a lamp using various paper products and LED light sources. The lamps were to be on display in Grevesmühlen, a neighboring town of Wismar, within an old factory plant that processed malt and wheat for a brewery. We were encouraged to learn to wire our own LEDs and to create something that was fitting for the architecture of the space.

As the building used to be a factory for malt and wheat, I took inspiration from the shapes of grain pods found in such plants. I experimented drawing the shape of the pods three dimensionally in SketchUp.

After finalizing the shape of the pod, I then flattened the three dimensional shape to two dimensions using geometry. This then produced an image that would be printable and that I could then cut out and reform into the three dimensional pods I had created in SketchUp.

The above image is the two dimensional version of the printable "pod." I then printed these in various sizes and rebuilt them. Watch the video below to see a stop-motion version of me building these pods. Each pod took about an hour to cut and glue together. I created 18 of them for the final lamp.

After building all 18 of the pods, I then wired LEDS together and attached them to a base mount. Here are a few "behind the scenes" images as it started coming together.

After the LEDs were wired, the base was built, and the lights were attached, I could begin attaching the paper pods which worked as diffusers to the LED lights. Below are the photos for the final project.

I titled the piece "Leuchtshotten," which means Light Pods, in German. Finally, I placed the lamp in an old window frame arch within the building, which I thought served as an ironic showcase for the piece.

I enjoyed learning how to wire LEDs in this project. Looking back, however, I would have experimented more with building a piece that would have fit more specifically to the space, rather than making such a sculptural object.