__________________________________________
‘Shade Volume’ is a new lighting collection, a modern interpretation of the classic lampshade that has its origin in the Western world. By combining and deforming this familiar object, the designers create a new form and language of light.
Lampshades may appear trivial and common in our daily life but the principle of this unnoticed object is an interesting way to redefine the light around us. ‘Shade Volume’ explores the possibility of shaping a light source by creating a thin and insignificant skin around it. The objective is to create lightweight objects that can sculpt light.
Trotereau and Karhof discovered that by joining two or more lampshades a useful lighting system is formed. The system allows the designers to assemble the ‘shades’ in a myriad of different ways, creating endless variations of shapes, assembled to the requirements of the room. The structure is lightweight despite its substantial volume.
The process could be likened to Isamu Noguchi’s take on the Japanese traditional rice paper Gifu lantern to create ‘Akari’. Akari means, illumination but is also implying the idea of weightlessness. One of Noguchi’s famous quotes puts his source of illumination at the heart of the home: ‘All you require to start a home are a room, a tatami and Akari’.
Trotereau and Karhof sense that Noguchi’s notion of light and space remains contemporary. The Designers state: ‘One could design environments as ‘weightless’ as possible: conceiving living spaces with few objects that use almost no material and yet shape significantly our surroundings.'
__________________________________________
__________________________________________