There are lots of lamps out there, and a whole lotta lighting made from a vast variety of materials, from wood to textiles. But there are few materials out there designed specifically for lighting projects. While often associated with clear acrylic for furniture and fashion, LuciteLux® offers product lines designed exclusively for indoor and outdoor lighting in their Illumination Series. Whether piping or diffusing light, products from the Illumination Series allow designers to develop stunning signs, architectural features and light fixtures using high-quality continuous or cell cast acrylic. In fact, any of the transparent and translucent LuciteLux® colors and effects can be illuminated for use in commercial projects, industrial design, residential projects—even art and sculpture.
“The opportunities that exist for acrylic as a material of choice in lighting design are phenomenal. The unprecedented rate and extent of change in the lighting industry give it a new platform. There are many drivers for these changes but a key factor is society’s search for more sustainable solutions that optimize the latest in LED technology and are aesthetically striking,” says Chris Robinson, Business Manager for Lucite International. And we’ve seen some of these already, first-hand, such as Light At Play’s Radiance Dome project, which made good use of LuciteLux® Light Guide Panel (LGP):
LGP is pretty special because illuminating particles are literally suspended in the sheet during manufacturing, so the light performance is optimized and cannot be scratched off or modified in any way.
You can even use LuciteLux® Spectrum Block for 3D lettering, numbers and shapes.
Some of our readers in Europe may know that LuciteLux® is sold under the brand name Perspex® on the other side of the pond. A more recent project that shows the versatility and creative potential of this material is Jamie Zigelbaum’s recent installation called Triangular Series made from Perspex® Spectrum LED (known as LuciteLux® Spectrum in North America) in Opal at Design Miami/ Basel’s Event Hall. Suspended from the ceiling of the entrance hall of the Herzog & De Meuron-designed Basel Exhibition Centre, 59 large tetrahedrons of varying sizes were scattered throughout the space to create an all-encompassing, immersive environment for visitors as they arrived and departed the fair.
I am so bummed I didn’t get to see this in person because not only is it gorgeous, but the entire installation interacts with you as you walk underneath it. It senses your presence and the lights change and flicker as you move beneath the tetrahedrons, which also communicate with each other, synchronizing rhythms of illumination. Watch it in action:
Perspex® Spectrum LED in Opal (known as LuciteLux® Spectrum in North America) acrylic sheets were the ideal material for this particular illuminated application because they offer slim designs with bright, even illumination, optimized for white LEDs. I hope more designers use this material in upcoming projects. Given the popularity of LEDs, there seems to be so much potential to create innovative products and applications.
Don’t forget that the 2014 LuciteLux® JUST IMAGINE Awards is still open! Enter your project anytime through September 15, 2014 on LuciteLux.com. In the meantime, keep up with LuciteLux® on Facebook and Pinterest.